Weeks Two and Three - Baby Steps Continue

The second and third weeks of this self-imposed experiment look very similar to Week One. I am becoming more bold with things I endeavor to do, but I still struggle with execution of some activities. I may even need to do a task with my right hand first and painstakingly observe and note the movement. Then I try to duplicate that movement with my left hand. Naturally, I wanted to immediately want to jump into some activities, but pragmatically, that was not advisable.

Tuesday, August 14 

8pm This goal of becoming left-handed is giving a large opportunity to practice important knife

skills. When I chop with my dominant right hand, I have formed bad habits and don’t always have proper technique. While holding the knife with my left, my form is much better and safer. I still lack finesse, but the lack of finesse is probably a very real reason why I’m safer with my cutting. Once I get through this year, I should start working on my right-hand skills.

As week one and week two melt into one another and I have been collecting pictures and observations for the blog, I am becoming aware and alarmed at how hostile the world is to lefties… Can openers, scissors, notepads. I’ve seen modern-day infographics condemning people for being left-handed. I thought these condemnations were a thing of my grandma’s time, who had her left-handed ways beating out of her in school. Consequently, until the day she died she did almost everything with her left hand except write. You would think today, in a day where we understand more about brain pathways and people who are different, there wouldn’t be this kind of condemnation. (Discussing the economics of manufacturing goods for lefties is something that I won’t discuss, as that is best for economic journals and magazines.)

Wednesday, August 15

5:51am I’m struggling to get right hand to do certain things, like unscrew the top of the almond milk. Everything was seamless before I took on this challenge. In order to figure out how to “move properly” I feel like I need to do this my normal way and take copious mental notes before I try the new way. Learning how to do things with my non-dominant hand is giving me more empathy for when my right-handed dyslexic father taught me how to throw a baseball. When I first learned to throw a softball, I would through the ball in the stereotypical girl fashion (from my shoulder). My dad walked over to me and show me how he throws it. I couldn’t understand when he’d show me how to throw with his right. He then would scrunch his eyes down tightly and go through each motion with his right and break it into digestible pieces and do it with his left.

6:08a The benefit of being ambidextrous with my eye make up is that I can make eye makeup more symmetrical if I do my left eye with my left hand and right eye with right. This defeats the purpose of working to become left-handed, but this may be a task where ambidextrous is best.

Friday, August 17

5:49am While working on my upcoming lecture at the David Geffen School of Medicine, it occurred to me that doing before and after cranial MRIs that feature brain pathways would add additional insight into how the brain works and the changes that happen when someone starts using their non-dominant hand in lieu of the dominant hand. Even though I work in the health system and have had multiple cranial MRIs following my brain surgery, having an MRI to see how brain pathways change when a person uses their non-dominant hand for a year, isn’t practical for my own experiment. While I’m interested in neuroscience I'm not a neuroscientist. If the 75% estimate of people who identify as ambidextrous is as high as my neurologist says, there will be plenty of people to enroll in a study for future researchers.

Saturday, August 18

9:13am My phone apps are set up for someone who is right-handed. The ones I use the most make my right thumb stretch the least. I should really consider changing the placement of my apps to truly help this experiment.

Besides the condemnations of lefties and the lack of various lefty kitchen utensils, I am being reminded that this is a cruel cruel world for lefties. I never paid much attention to mobile platforms, but for the most part, they are set up for people who are right-handed. In my email, if I want to select messages to delete, the edit function is in the upper right corner, then the TRASH and ARCHIVE buttons are in the lower right corner.

10:36am While sipping coffee with my right hand and eating with my left hand, I’m starting to feel like a competitive eater. They are so efficient with how the use both hands. It gives me the fleeting question, “How many of them are ambidextrous?” Dovetailing to that, I wonder, “How many use these two-handed eating skills in their daily life (in a more civilized way)?”

Sunday, August 19

8:37am The boyfriend does don’t drink coffee and even though we’ve been dating almost 1.5 years, we haven’t put a coffee pot in his kitchen. I walked across the street to Starbucks before we hit the road for Adventure Day. Starbucks is on the second floor- it occurred to me that I’ve always used my left hand to steady myself on an escalator. I don’t like going down them AT ALL. And in years past I’ve tried previously to use the right handrail, and the moment I try to put my right hand down, it brings dread. I end up deftly side-stepping to my left so I can have more balance and use the left rail.

Tuesday, August 21
It’s my birthday and I celebrated by giving myself the day off from becoming left-handed.

Friday, August 24

A lot of what I do day-to-day is computer work. I didn’t think this would provide much opportunity to be left-handed, but I realized if I’m going to be left-handed, I need to move the computer mouse to the left so I can mouse with my left hand. Having spent 20 to 25 years using a mouse with my right hand, this will take some getting used to. Heck, when learning to mouse, it wasn’t even a matter of choice. The mouse was always to the right of the keyboard, and there wasn’t enough slack to move it to the left. The two computer/typing classes I took in junior high and high school even taught us to mouse with our right hands, and I went to a progressive school in the ‘90s! With cords for computers changing and becoming longer for proper ergonomics etc, I thought it wise to consult a left-handed friend… It turns out he switches back and forth to help with carpal tunnel. With the eight + hours of computer work many of us have to do daily, perhaps this is a wise modification we should all make! 

All in all, this has been an insightful week two and three of changing my dominant hand. I do far more with my left than I realized, but there are certainly adaptations I still need to make. I lot of the changes will come down to building finesse.

PS: Yes, I know they are reserved for letters, but it doesn't entirely relate to this post. I see that I have already had one failure at becoming a lefty. I missed August 13 - It's Left Hander's Day. Happy National Day, Lefties! I'm not there yet, but maybe I'll join you next year.