They stripped me of my identity

Prologue

The following is a true story of one of my friends, who used to study with me in the sixth grade. He used to write, and do other tasks with his left hand, i.e. he was a left-hander. Due to the pressure from his family and friends, he had to write and do his tasks using his right hand. The story is a first-person excerpt through his eyes.

The Story

I was a bright student who scored well. I was good at extra-curricular activities too. Even with all these achievements, the only thing that people noticed in me was the fact that I use my left hand to write and carry out my tasks. It was not the fact that my handwriting was bad or that I did not use my left hand properly; my cursive handwriting was one among the best, and with expertise, I carried out all my tasks to perfection using my left hand. But all that they noticed was that I used my left hand to write.

In kindergarten, my teachers did not like the fact that I was a left-hander. They tried their best to change this fact. Whenever I used to sit for writing, they used to give me a chair made for right-handed people. Writing using the left hand was very difficult in that chair. I protested against this action of theirs, but they did not pay any heed to that. Apparently, being a left-hander was something unruly for them. When I came to the first grade, things were no better. Now we had to write a lot of notes, and it was difficult to match the teacher’s pace since I was a left-hander. Even now, the behaviour towards people like us, who used left hand more often, was not very good. They thought it was some sort of supernatural duty to prevent people from writing using their left hand.

(courtesy:theconversation.com)

The situation from second to fifth grade was no better. By sixth grade, I started embracing myself. My teachers in sixth grade did not care about which hand I used for writing. So technically, I had to rediscover myself and my true sense. I did not want to be in the rat race. I did not want my wings to be clipped; I just wanted to fly high. I wanted to be unique. People advocate so much for ‘uniqueness’ and the ‘Be Unique’ attitude, yet they themselves fall prey to the rat race instigated by the society and its norms.

Being a left-hander is a big struggle. Most of the items and machinery are made to suit right-handed people. Left-handers have to adapt and use the machinery using the left hand. The chairs in our schools had the board attached to the right-hand side. I could not write fast with my right hand, and so I had to use my left hand every now and then. Plus the rebukes and insults the other students give to you is unbearable.

Be Unique!

                                                                  (courtesy:dreamstime.com)

This may seem like a trivial story, but thousands of people face such adversities every day. People are stripped of their identity just because he/she does not fit into the norms of society. People lose their identity by learning the wrong things from home and school. Being a left-hander isn’t abnormal. It is completely normal to be a left-hander. In recent days, many companies have come forward to make furniture and machinery that left-handers can use without any issues. People are slowly realising that being unique or different from the others is not abnormal; on the contrary, it is an asset.