Friday, April 3, 2015

Being Different Can Be a Good Thing by Donna Fasano

Being left-handed, I have always felt different. My elementary school teachers made me feel as though my leftie-ness was a bad thing. Thankfully, this thinking has changed and teachers no longer have a bias against left-handed children. Over the years, I have learned to embrace the fact that I am left-hand-dominate. Being a southpaw sets me apart from the rest of the pack.

  1. About 10% of the population is left-handed.
  2. Lefties are more apt to pursue a creative career.
  3. August 13th became International Left-handers Day in 1996. Celebrate!
  4. Because the right side of the brain (which controls the left side of the body) is less tolerant of alcohol, lefties are 3 times more likely to be alcoholics.
  5. Lefties are more likely to suffer with dyslexia and stuttering.
  6. Lefties reach puberty 4 to 5 months later than right-handed people.
  7. Left-handed people live an average of 9 years less than right-handed people.
  8. Lefties are better at multi-tasking.
  9. Left-handed people are more likely to suffer insomnia, are more prone to migraines, and are more likely to suffer with allergies.
  10. There are such things as left-handed pens and pencils and scissors.
  11. Lefties are known to recover from a stroke faster than their right-handed counterparts.
  12. Studies have suggested the lefties are more talented in math. (These studies may have had a different outcome if I had been asked to participate.)
  13. Evidence strongly suggests that Jack the Ripper and The Boston Strangler were both lefties.
  14. Other famous lefties: Napoleon Bonaparte, Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, Aristotle, Jimi Hendrix, Babe Ruth, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Prince Charles and Prince William, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, and Hugh Jackman.
  15. Left-handed US Presidents: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama were/are all southpaws.
  16. One Australian study found left-handed people access both hemispheres of their brain more readily than right-handed people, who tend to be left hemisphere-dominant.
Are you a leftie? Did you face adversity because of your left-handedness? Have you, like me, learned to love the fact that you’re not the same as everyone else? I hope so!
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USA Today Bestselling Author Donna Fasano is a leftie who has written over 30 romance and women’s fiction titles. Learn more about her at her blog, or visit her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Donna’s latest book, FOLLOWING HIS HEART, is available for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook, and also in paperback.

9 comments:

  1. What a fun and interesting post, Donna. I'm right-handed, but still enjoyed it. :)

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  2. One of my boys is a lefty and my husband forced him to throw right handed. This made baseball a struggle, but strengthened his coordination with his right hand so that when he played basketball he was a switch shooter, which is very rare

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  3. I think both my son and I should have been left-handed, but my Dad kept insisting and correcting us when we used the left hand. No dyslexia!. My niece and granddaughter are left handed and very successful intellectually.

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  4. My husband is fully ambidextrous and I think the interference at an early age may be the reason.

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  5. This is an interesting post. Thanks for all the references, I had no idea about some of them. I am right-handed but my husband is a southpaw. Sometimes it is interesting to watch his brain work. :)

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  6. Good to know! I'm married to a leftie and one of my daughters is a leftie.

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  7. My younger daughter and her husband are both lefties. Their firstborn is a rightie, but the second one is a leftie. Interesting information about left-handed people.

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  8. Fun post, Donna! I think I was born left-handed, but an early Kindergarten teacher actually whacked my hand with a ruler when I held a crayon in my left hand. Those were the days, I know! LOL... Thankfully, that would never happen now. People who see me writing with a pencil or pen, often comment by saying "Oh! I didn't know you were left-handed!" Then they blink and realize I'm holding the instrument in my *right* hand, but in what looks like a left-handed way. I'm glad schools don't do this to children anymore. I had a tough time reversing numbers and letters for a while, and think the left-brain/right-brain confusion may have had something to do with it. We should all enjoy -- and be celebrated -- for who we are! :)

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  9. My grandma, my dad, me and two other siblings are all left handed. My husband is a leftie, too, but both of my kids are right handed. Go figure. Of my three grandchildren, the last one is proving to be a leftie. It's a mystery how a certain one will get it and others won't. Growing up, I had to learn some things right handed, and to this day can only do it the right-handed way, like using a scissors. However, whenever I learn something new, I can choose which hand I want to use. Currently I can navigate a computer mouse with either hand because it's most convenient to be able to switch off.

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