left to right
may 22, 2002
it was back in january, and i was having lunch with my friend when he blurted out, "hey, i didn't know you're left handed!?" taken aback by his keen sense of observation, i replied, "i'm ambidextrous" and continued to shove my teriyaki beef into my mouth, deftly maneuvering my fork with my left hand.
i've never been approached or asked about it before because basically, people have poor observation skills. or perhaps they just think i'm either left handed or just right handed depending on what hand i'm utilizing at the moment. but if you pay closer attention, my hands switch off.....back and forth, much like a metronome. left right left right.
yes, it's just another useless fact about me.
i was actually born left handed. or at least i should say, all the indications in my youth veer toward usage of the left hand. i don't remember much about this but my mom tells me that the left appendage was the one i used the most to do things with. however when it came time to teach me how to write, my mom, being right handed, had a damn difficult time trying to guide my left hand using her right hand. so she had this brilliant thought: "maybe i can train her to use her right hand to write while still encouraging her to use her left hand."
not sure what kind of mushroom my mom was smoking at the time but that's pretty much how it happened. she began to teach me to write with my right hand and by the time i arrived in the states and began my american education, the teachers here also taught me how to write with my right hand (as they usually do with young kids i assume).
sure, there's that whole thing about not going against what the child naturally does but that's not what happened to me. i conformed, going against nature! i still do the majority of the things with my left hand as well as my right -- well, everything except for writing that is. but i brush my teeth with me left hand, i use chopsticks equally well with both hands, i am more comfortable using a fork with my left and spoon with my right. things just naturally gravitate towards the usage of both sides right now, depending on the scenario and whichever one i feel like using. it's not really a conscious decision. it just...happens and i don't even realize it.
i never even knew the term "ambidextrous" until i got older when i was learning about the left and right hemispheres of the brain. and perhaps it's because of this that i learned how come i am better suited for certain types of interests and not others. since i learned how to write with my right hand, i could never figure out how come i was using my left hand for everything else. whenever people would ask whether i am right or left handed, i would naturally answer "right" because that's what i've always thought i was. but in reality, i now know that i'm actually a left handed person, taught to use my right hand in a very right hand-accommodated world. it took me a long time to figure this out...try...32 years?
i know this is riveting material. please try to contain your excitement.
