I read in Jayvee Fernandez's blog that today is International Left Hander's Day! Ahahahaha... it's my day! *gives a high five to all fellow lefties out there*


I was one of those incorrigible lefties who insist on using their left hands even under threat of punishment. My mom, a lefty herself, was forced to learn to write with her right hand on pain of being spanked or hit with a stick when she was a little girl. Although she tried to teach me to write with my right hand, and although my Grade One teacher repeatedly threatened to smack my hands with a stick when she caught me using my left hand, I stubbornly went on being a lefty. (Ahaha, compared to my ex who, a relative told me, was a former lefty who always got spanked for it by his parents and ended up using his right hand. Not to diss him, but I always was the more stubborn of the two of us.)

By the time I got to Grade Three, my teachers had gotten resigned to the idea that they could not force me to use my right hand, and just turned a blind eye. By the time I was in high school, people didn't much care which hand you used anymore.

"Kaliwete" doesn't just mean left-handed in Filipino... it means someone treacherous, an unfaithful lover. "Nangangaliwa" means someone is unfaithful. So whenever someone asks me if I am right- or left-handed, I always answer that I am a true kaliwete except where love is concerned (LOL!)

And for those who immediately look superior when they learn I'm left-handed, I always inform them that since the hand you use signifies which part of your brain is dominant, left-handed people are the only people in their right minds. Gets them everytime!

My being a lefty is something that has evolved from being something that made me not belong to something that makes me unique. Although the two things may seem to be the same, they are so different when put in perspective... "You're not like us" versus "I'm not like the rest of you." I appreciate that being a lefty means that I'm likely to be more creative, that it enables me to step back and always see the larger picture. I appreciate that it makes me able to think of things that no one else could conceive.

Yup, I didn't realize till now... being a lefty is one of my simple pleasures. *beams*