Living on the Left

I have spent my entire life on the left and I need to let my readers know that this is a right sided world. I am not talking politically, I am referring the being a person who is left sided dominant. A 'nice' term that is used to describe us is southpaws. In years past, and by that I mean way past like in the olden days when my mom was a child, you weren't allowed to be left handed. That's right, the teachers made sure you did all your writing with your right hand. You righties are thinking, simple enough, you just learn to do everything on the right. But you righties are not faced with daily challenges and adventures and I challenge you to just spend one day doing everything with your left hand. Luckily for me, I was allowed to be left handed at school, which is similar to saying I was allowed to be a girl, but all instruction was done showing how to do everything on the right and I was told to just reverse it. So, when the teacher said pick it up with your right, I picked it up with my left and when the teacher said left, I went right. That's easy peasy except when you are driving and your husband says go left and you go right. Years of doing the opposite required years of deprogramming. I realize that many people have far more challenges than this but I need to point out a few things in this world that Righties take for granted.

Door knobs, yup look at what hand opens a door with a knob. Not a big deal, and a few doors might open to the left, but most open to the right. No wonder lefties walk into doors so often!
Scissors, especially scissors in prepackaged suture kits. All those years that I spent removing sutures by cutting with my right hand, lucky for the patient that meant I used my left to remove the actual suture and I didn't have to put the scissors down first. They got much faster service that way!
Vegetable peelers. As a southpaw, you have to search far and wide to find a peeler that has dual sharp sides or the sharp side set up for left handed use. No wonder lefties have more accidents, you try doing everything with the wrong hand and see how clumsy you become.
Three ring binders. Remember these and how we had to write on the front page, not the back page. Reaching over the rings left for some interesting writing habits!

Those are just a few of the things that I have encountered in my life and I am usually silent about it. Until now! Yesterday, I was faced with an almost disastrous challenge that reminded me how easy it must be to be sitting there all high and mighty on the right. You see, I was buying bulk baking supplies in the bulk bins and the scoops were all set up on the right side of the barrels. I had to scoop with my right hand into flimsy plastic bags. I tried to maneuver myself into a position that allowed me to scoop with the left but it was logistically impossible. It was like it was snowing so much flour ended up on the ground! I tried my best to keep it contained but my fine and gross motor skills on the right under pressure are not spectacular. Imagine the horror on the faces around me as I left the aisle resembling a mad pastry chef with flour all over the front of me. I will leave what the floor looked like to the imagination of my readers. I would have taken a photo, but that would have raised me from crazy lady to lunatic and I needed to retain some dignity for standing in the checkout line. Speaking of checkout, guess where the pens are located? They sure the heck aren't positioned for the convenience of those of us living on the left!