Left-Handed Day!

Today is Left-Handed Day. I know, it’s such a prolific holiday that you undoubtedly already knew this. As a lifelong lefty, I’m particularly excited about this national holiday!

When I was in (Catholic!) grade school, my teachers did their darndest to change my dominant hand from left to right.  Apparently, they bought into the bunk notion that being a lefty is an affliction that must be reversed. Well, I disagreed. Wholeheartedly. For example, when these teachers put me in a right hand only desk, I turned my paper sideways – literally sideways – and wrote top to bottom, right to left. I still write this way. In fact, many people look with awe when watching me write. Full disclosure: it does look mighty odd!

Now, when it came to my sports life, for some reason I was predisposed to my right side (thereby being labeled as ambidextrous). Case in point: until my breast cancer diagnosis, I played tennis right handed.  As many of you will recall, after my double mastectomy, I developed lymphedema in my right arm, necessitating that, if I wanted to continue to play tennis, I needed to switch hands and play with my left hand. Though it felt crazy at first, as it turned out, I think that I was destined to play left handed!

Below are some fun ideas to help you celebrate Left-Handers Day. Try these activities using your left hand…and have some fun!

• Eating & drinking
• Stir food in pans
• Fill & pour your beverages
• Open a bottle
• Use spatulas
• Use the computer keypad to enter lots of numbers
• Draw or write in ring binder / spiral bound notepad with left hand
• Using fountain/ink pen or just felts and colour in with left hand
• Play tennis – or any racquet sport – with your left hand
• Kick a soccer ball with your left foot

If you happen to be left-handed, you are in excellent company:

• John F. Kennedy
• Gerald Ford
• Ronald Reagan
• George H.W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• Barack Obama
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Michelangelo
• Alexander the Great
• Julius Caesar
• Napoléon Bonaparte
• Helen Keller
• Henry Ford
• David Rockefeller
• James A. Garfield
• Herbert Hoover
• Harry S. Truman
• Carol Burnett
• Kermit the Frog
• Goldie Hawn
• Julia Roberts
• Sarah Jessica Parker
• Oprah Winfrey
• Babe Ruth
• Marie Curie
• Aristotle
• Jimi Hendrix

How many of you, dear readers, are left-handed?