Mae Koger
Chairs with built-in desks at the College are the bane of my existence. They are low and tiny and, worst of all, right-handed. I think I have seen maybe four individual desks in classrooms at Wooster that are left-handed. What makes it more aggravating is when you finally find a lefty desk, there’s usually someone sitting in it. At that point, do you just take a right-handed desk, or do you ask that person if they’re left-handed?
The desks we have in our dorm rooms are right-handed. They have storage on the right side so that when you put the desk against the wall, you don’t bruise your elbow when you try to write.
While this is an issue unique to my experience as a lefty on campus, there are other difficulties that go with being left-handed in a world designed by righties that are not limited to my experience here at Wooster. Spiral notebooks and composition notebooks are challenging to write in, with the ring imprints and the ink residue that show up all over our hands. Another issue is that everything is upside down: tape measures, pens, and pencils.
Something I really struggle with is scissors. I have grown up using my right hand to cut things, but now that I know that left-handed scissors exist, I can’t use them because they are completely new to me. Imagine being told that you can’t use your right hand to write for all your life, so you adapt and only practice with your left, but when you are told later in life that you are allowed to use your right hand, you are terrible at it.
Kitchen utensils are the worst. Wooden spoons are for righties, and I get to use the metric units instead of imperial whenever I want to use a measuring cup. Knives are always uncomfortable to use because of their curve designed to fit comfortably in the right hand.
The Pit only had a few left-handed chairs, too. You know, the ones with the desks that swivel? I really enjoyed sitting and working in those left-handed chairs before they were taken away. Hopefully, in the new student center, there will be more left-handed chairs to work at.
In conclusion, the right-handed world is annoying to those who are left-handed. Even though only ten percent of us are left-handed, it really is unfair when we are unable or uncomfortable using something because it was designed for an individual who uses a different hand than us.
