Approximately  ten percent of the world’s population is left handed, and ever since the beginning of civilization, it has been frowned upon to be a “leftie.” I am a proud left hander, but ever since the first day of kindergarten  I realized that school and play would be at my disadvantage. From cutting a piece of paper to holding a wooden pencil and playing “Duck Duck Goose” I had to learn to adjust to comfortably accomplish simple tasks.

If you were to take a look back in history, you’ll notice left handedness was the blame for practically everything. It was seen as the mark of the devil, the cause of disease and an indication that a person was pondering a criminal or rebellious act. However, it is now considered a signal of creativeness and intelligence.

“The biggest problem I have as being a left handed teacher is that when I write on my board, my hand smears right through the words,” said Ms. Becks “I had to learn to write with my hand out so I wouldn’t mess up the content on the board.”

We live in a right handed world, and if you were born in the ten percentile to be left hand dominate, you understand the horror of the desk, spiral notebook, scissors and pen smudges. While sitting at a desk may not seem like a troublesome task, it is only the start of the everyday struggle a leftie must endure.

“Using scissors has been a real challenge for me. But, when you bump shoulders with others, you have a good excuse,” said senior Ethan Cohen

As you take a seat at your table you realize the person next to you is right handed. The class goes on but you can’t possibly focus because the two of you are constantly bumping elbows while writing. The teacher then tells the class to get out their notebook and a new problem immediately presents itself. This could be the most painful writing experience for any left hander because your hand is rubbing against the inconveniently placed spirals every time you enter a new line.

Most lefties settle the spiral notebook problem by turning the book on its head and writing back to front, or instead using a smaller, more expensive composition notebook. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to create a notebook that didn’t put lefties in an immediate disadvantage.

Ink pen and markers might as well be the death of all clean hands, as writing left handed will result in a nasty smudge on the palm of your hand that is a real pain to wash off. As you are writing, your hand is smearing the fresh ink, making the hand writing nearly illegible and putting all the hard work to shame. At least some companies were kind enough to invent a smear guard to limit this problem, but they are not the most fashionable to wear and very inconvenient.

“It’s really hard to find a left handed baseball glove in P.E, while everyone was grabbing their gloves and playing, the select few that were left handed had to switch out the one glove every play,” said freshman Ashley Saulter

After school is done, the left handed person may still face the problem sports offer. A baseball glove is mainly made for a right handed fit so your options are to either learn to play differently or look in five different sport stores to find the one leftie glove that’s in the storage room.

“I honestly like being left handed because most people are right handed and I think being left handed is a unique trait,” said sophomore Isabelle Shoaf

Although left handedness is, at times, a huge disadvantage, we still are some pretty cool people. There is even an official left-handers day which is on Aug. 13 and a website devoted to selling products that help everyday tasks become easier. After all, we survive and thrive in a world of right dominant people.