At the age of 24, I've finally joined a Toastmasters club. The nervousness I felt while doing my first speech is the same as I feel before making all my speeches.
I've managed to research on my topic title and got some info from the internet. As such, I'd welcome any advice to make my other speeches better and I'm also willing to guide new speakers to gain confidence in their project speeches.
Being Left out in a Right world
Hi everyone. Who in this room can possibly suggest
what do these people (places Queen Elizabeth, Steve Jobs and Barack Obama on
the board) have in common? Do you know that they have invited me to their club
just by waving at the camera?
We belong in an exclusive minority group where everything that is right is
wrong for us.
Fellow toastmasters and guest, you’ve heard it right.
Let me give you a clue. I can’t use a regular scissors, never liked a binder
note book and dislike sitting on a side foldable table. Yes people, I am left
handed.
I have been left handed my entire life and it has
influenced my behavior, thinking pattern and maybe even how I interact with
people.
What seems normal for most people becomes a challenge
for a person like me. Growing up around right handers is even tougher than you
think.
School was hard. When I was a kid, my teachers and
parents used to reprimand me for
having an almost ineligible writing until I was about 6 years old. I
had to contort myself so I could write on a right-handed desk. I struggled to
keep my hand clean and often ended up with ink
smudges on both the paper and my hand; writing in those spiral-bound
notebooks is difficult, if not impossible, for lefties. I am always stumped by
pen and pencils. Thank god for the computer! No more smudges.. thank you.
While at
home, can openers, ice cream scoop and scissors are always
hurting my hand. Until today I struggle with the can opener. My dad’s guitar
will mock me every time I try to play it.
And when eating with groups, I have to fight to sit on
the far left side of the table so I don’t bump the person next to me the entire
time I’m eating.
I have often wondered if I really am that unique. With
an estimated 10 percent of the population being left-handed, and almost 3
million people in the country being lefties, it’s not as rare as it feels.
Aside from feeling different myself, there seems to be
a history of discrimination toward my left-handed comrades, embedded in
language:
·
Some
common English phrases portray the left as negative — such as a “left-handed”
compliment.
·
In
Latin, the word for left is “sinister,” which of course means evil in English.
·
The
English word for left comes from the Old English word “lyft” meaning broken or
weak.
One of the things that I have also heard my whole life
is that I am clumsy and have no eye-hand coordination. But over the past few
years, I’ve learnt that this is probably not due to a default in my natural
abilities, but in having to use right-handed tools and items that are backward
for me.
Given all this negativity surrounding us, it’s hard
not to feel a little slighted. But there are some really great things about
being left-handed.
We are right-brain dominated. Being “right brained”
comes with all kinds of positives. We tend to be visual thinkers; we are more
creative, have a greater imagination, are better at expressing feelings even
non-verbally, and are great at daydreaming.
In fact, I am surprisingly capable of visualizing my
chemistry classes just by listening to the lecture of the day. It is why I’ve
always been fascinated by science. On the other hand, I can’t seem to watch
Casper the friendly ghost until I was 14 because I was too scared at night
thinking he might pop up in the bathroom.
On being creative, I’d like to think that my so called
left handed character allows me to draw and write.
This is one of my drawings.
I’ve used digital art
mixed with pencil drawing in this photo. I admit, it’s no Picasso but at least
it’s something to look at. This could also explain why I have an affinity to
listen to songs of all genre and language… I love baroque, French blues and
Hindi songs. From Linkin Park to Mozart’s Piano for Two I enjoy it all.
Lefties also seem to have a better chance of having a
high IQ, or being considered a genius. Twenty percent of all Mensa members say
they are left-handed, and among the famous “smart” lefties: Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie,
and Isaac Newton.
One other thing I love about being a southpaw is that
it is said that left handers are able to adjust to seeing underwater quicker. I
may not be an amphibian or a sea creature, but that make me feel like I’ve got
some sort of superpower. It helps me in my scuba diving too!
Lefties are better able to multitask. The theory is
that being left-hand forces your brain to think more quickly. So we usually
have an easier time dealing with a lot of unorganized information and are able
to sort through it all.
Best part of all, there is a special day where all Left
Handers celebrate our uniqueness on the 13th of August every year.
However with all that said, we don’t really know if being
right is better than left or vice versa. One thing I’ve learned is that I can
live in a world where everything is for the right handed and I still thrive. So
embrace your left hander counterparts and let’s start campaigning for left
handed tables in schools shall we J
