50 Lifelong Struggles Only Lefties Will Understand

1. Quickly going through Instagram stories is harder, try doing it with a left hand. Your thumb only reaches the middle of screen and that’s no good due to the reposted story links.

2. Coffee cup pictures never face out.

3. Social interactions. Handshakes. High-fives. etc. When you are interacting with another person who has expectations of right handedness those interactions can be more awkward for a lefty. Think about sexy time situations. People are gunning for the mirror of what you are attempting to do. Wrong hand. Wrong side. etc.

4. Hitting elbows while writing and eating.

5. Trying to take notes in college in a right-handed writing desk (because there are only 5 left-handed ones in an auditorium that seats 100).

6. My measuring cups have measurements on only one side, so if I am pouring liquid in it and holding it at the same time, I can’t see the measurement.

7. Wiping your bum with your wedding ring hand. I don’t like to have my ring that close to pooh.

8. Being forced to learn a musical instrument the right handed way.

9. Signing something with a corded pen that is attached on the right side of the clipboard or credit card scanner. Extra points if it’s stretchy and coiled.

10. Can openers!

11. Everything is right hand oriented. Everything from cars to doors, to placement of trash cans, you don’t really realize these things until you do.

12. Ladles. Really, the little pour spout is on the wrong side!

13. Shooting guns for left-handed people can be hard. Some designs have their shell dispenser positioned in such a way that when a left-handed person shoots the gun, the shells fly into their face.

14. Driving. You have no idea how long it took me to stop hovering my left foot over the brake.

15. Eating at a crowded table. I have to switch to the right hand in such a case.

16. Another irritating nemesis is a bread bag tie! They are always twisted the wrong way! I save the plastic bag holders and replace every single wire tie… OR put the wire back on, as only a lefty would do, and then the right handed ones feel the struggle.

17. When the delivery guy needs a signature and tries to force the pen into your right hand.

18. Where people put their glasses at dinner parties. People at parties drink the drink of the person sitting next to them (by accident) because they foolishly use their dominant hand to reach for their drink.

19. PC gaming. It gets so awkward using WASD keys with your right hand.

20. Arm wrestling people, they think you are much weaker than them just because you don’t use your right hand all the time.

21. The one thing I always notice is public computers like at my school. All the computer mice are on the right side of the keyboard but I always end up having to switch it to the other side for myself because I can’t use the mouse too well right handed.

22. Hitting ‘back’ on Android phones is super uncomfortable when holding the phone with the left hand. The only reason I miss my iPhone is for the swipe back feature.

23. Credit card machines are often placed in such a way that something gets in the way of my hand when I try to swipe left-handed.

24. Guitars are always strung wrong, I spend hours fixing them.

25. Butter knives are smooth, easy sailing for righties… for lefties you might as well use a cheese grater to spread butter.

26. Has no one mentioned pencil sharpeners? I got a left-handed pencil sharpener once and it was life-changing. Instead of turning the pencil clockwise towards your body like you would with a regular sharpener, with the left-handed one you would turn it counter-clockwise away from your body! It’s a much more comfortable of a motion to do, and I never realized how uncomfortable regular right-handed sharpeners were until I found that luxury.

27. “WhOa, YoU’rE lEfT haNdEd?!?!?!?!” -People you’ve known for years and have said this to you several times over the years.

28. First, button fly jeans are out of the question. It’s hard enough to learn to zip right handed.

29. Revolving doors go counter clockwise, to favor right handed people.

30. Twisting door handles the wrong way on first try.

31. Oddly enough, scissors. The curves are meant for righties (only we can say that) and they dig into our hands when using them enough.

32. Those little pastry forks you get with a knife on one side are designed purely for right handers and always upside down with the cutting edge being useless to me.

33. Getting graphite or ink on your hand from writing.

34. Spiral notebooks are just uncomfortable to use. I end up positioning my hand really awkwardly and it makes it harder to write.

35. Buying golf clubs. Whether you’re at Wal-Mart or a fancy pro shop your options are painfully limited, possibly priced higher (I’ve seen 30% mark ups) and any clerk that helps you treats you like a mutant freak.

36. Lots of DS games weren’t made for us, and you can’t buy leftie DSes.

37. Most pen tablets used for drawing have buttons on the wrong side. Luckily there are ways to flip the settings.

38. When I was younger playing catch everyone use to have the left handed glove to catch and threw with their right hand. I constantly would catch the ball, take off the glove, then throw the ball back… which was super awkward.

39. They always look at me all judgy when I turn my paper at a 90 degree angle to write. Like sorry, we’re not all right handed ok.

40. Chainsaw or circular saw; man glitter (saw dust) fills up my boots/ gets all over me.

41. Cutting bread at my grandma’s house. It’s the one thing I can’t help her with, but she always asks me to do! She has a very specific bread knife that has a wooden guide on the side of it for consistent size slices and I straight up can’t use. Always end up having to ask someone else if they can cut bread. This one’s a little one, but it always frustrates me!

42. Initially learning to drive a manual transmission car was a little more challenging.

43. I always forget which sides the fork and spoon and knife belong. Idk if I’m dumb as a rock but on many occasions I just ‘forget’ which hand to they belong to.

44. Always bumping into people that are walking towards you because you have a tendency to move on the same side as they do.

45. A lot of notebooks make you twist your hand an awkward way to write anything and it makes my writing way worse for awhile.

46. I personally have trouble writing with some pens being left handed. Usually the ink doesn’t flow well.

47. Writing on whiteboards is a horrible, horrible experience.

48. Being paired with the only other left handed person in the class at school.

49. Currently, as the only person that’s left-handed in my household, it’s learning how to crochet and knit. My mom does both a lot, and has tried to teach me quite a few times, but I can’t get the hang of it since I’m trying to copy what she’s doing but “backwards.”

50. The way you write with the left hand is WAY different than how you write with the right since you push the pencil instead of pulling it.