Week 1 - Baby Steps to Become Left-Handed

In my first week of becoming left handed I’ve had some typical lefty struggles, like how the hell do I write so I don’t get ink all over my hand and smear what I just wrote? Other struggles are a little more unique to me. I don’t know if I’m doing an activity as a lefty, a righty, or some modified Sarah version.

The modified Sarah version of many activates is due in large part to my pre-existing condition that causes small fibrous non-cancerous tumors to grow along nerve sheeths and throughout my body. In a “normal” person, when the synapses fire, they build connections. Like taking a walk in the woods, each time you travel the path, it becomes well-worn and walking is easier. With repetition of synapses firing, the task gets easier. For me, along some synapse lines, the small tumors act like boulders and an alternate path has to be made to achieve a goal. By the need to find new routes, I haven’t always done things the “normal way.”  After watching my success of finding new ways around to achieve my desired outcome, my mom would quip, “if you had a stroke, you’d be okay.” Mind you, my this is a woman who watched her young father have a stroke and recover and is also the same woman who told me I was like an Arabian Horse. (Meaning, I can’t run fast, but I can run far—This has helped me through two marathons and nearly a dozen half-marathons.)

So, this is part of my mentality when I entered into this self-imposed challenge. Following are some observations I’ve made while working towards my goal of becoming fully left-handed.

Saturday, August 4, 2018

When you consciously have to do something with your “other” hand, you are reminded how kinetic and intertwined movements are... everything from brushing teeth, washing dishes, grabbing the face cloth. I’m becoming hyperaware of each movement and what I need to do to accomplish a task. My face cloth is to the right of my sink. Can I grab it with my right hand and after wetting it with water, can I put it in my left to wash my face. OR, do I need to reach across my body and grab the cloth with my left hand and turn the water on with my right?

Felt kinda like this kid

10am Eating a runny egg for my first left hand meal probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. Eating a runny egg with cantanelli beans for my second meal was less smart. 

11am I’m going to have to switch FitBit to my right hand. 

11:02am Wearing my FitBit (and cause bracelets) feels weird and unnatural... which is a little silly since I used to wear my watch on my right hand... when I was still in limbo of my dominant hand. 

11:58am Rethinking maybe I shouldn’t do EVERYTHING with my left hand on Day 1.  I need to do yard work and don’t think I’m up for trimming roses or bougainvillea with my left hand just yet. (Plus, I would have to face the curse that all lefties face and get scissors and pruners that are made for lefties.)

4:14pm (while making popcorn)  Attempting to cook with my left hand remind me of cooking with my 6.5yon niece. I told her to “sprinkle” some seasoning, and she dumped seasoning. It’s not that she doesn’t get the concept, she is a natural in the kitchen. She doesn’t have the fine motor control an adult has. At my adult age, I have more refinement than a child, but with my lack of experience of using my left hand, I don’t have the same refinement one has when they’ve been using that hand their whole life. Consequently, when I want to put a smaller portion of popcorn in the pan, a dump went in.

 

Eating it with my left is not a problem. I usually eat popcorn w left... well, truthfully. With whatever hand is closest to the bowl. 

Sunday, August 5

9:18am During this challenge, I am seeing that I do a number of things with my left hand already. Sometimes for a task like brushing my hair, it works in concert with my right and for others picking items up off the ground it’s a designated task. 

Tuesday, August 7

1:30pm I find that I’m getting writer’s cramp similar to what I experienced when I was very young and first writing. I am certain that part of my problem is because iI don’t have the refinement for “sprinkles” or endurance for extended writing is that I don’t have strength in my left hand because I don’t use it for writing often and therefore it hasn’t had the passive exercise. 

Note to self: I should consider activities I should/could do for my right hand that won’t violate my principle of becoming left-handed.

Thursday, August 9

6pm While writing notes for a friend’s script, one of the parts I’m struggling with is spelling. I don’t think about spelling words when I write with my right hand, I just write. In addition to worrying about the movement to shape the letters, my ability to process thought and then spell is slower. Who knew spelling tests and the repetition of hand-writing out all these words was so necessary. These activities seem inconsequential, but I am seeing that the repletion of spelling words gets the words into your muscle memory, much like the practice worksheets on how to form letters.

By having the spelling of words in my muscle memory, I am able to do things much more rapidly.

Sunday, August 12
10:11am Sipping coffee and giving notes on my same friend’s script from August 9 (writing notes has slowed the note giving process), I am realizing that the likely outcome of my year endeavor to become left-handed will be that I become fully ambidextrous and will look for ways to be more efficient. For example, there is a very real likelihood I will be sipping coffee with one hand and writing notes with another.

9:21pm I finally finished dinner. After cooking left handed and backing up computer, realized I forgot to eat with my left hand!

Tuesday, August 14

5:06pm I am realizing that some things I do, I don’t know if I’m done it the way a righty does it or a lefty. I’ve always done things the way that made the most sense to me, like, pouring something out of a heavy container. I guess this would be a modified Sarah version. I’ve always held the container so that my left hand has most of the weight and my right directs where to pour. That said, container is on left side of my body. I think part of this journey will be to find out if I'm already doing something as a lefty. For big physical things like, baseball, golf, archery, and opening jars I know I do as a lefty— It’s some of the smaller day-to-day movements that I haven’t given thought to until now… For example, opening a door with your left hand makes more sense because you are not blocking the exit/entrance with your body. When you open the door with your right hand, you’re in your own way.