What would happen if you woke up in the morning and everything was backwards? You would have to use your other hand for computer mouses or pencil sharpener handles. Simple actions would be a lot harder and take more effort. This is what left-handed people have to deal with every day.

Left hand:

Although people who are dominant in their left hand face difficulties, there is evidence that left-handed people are more creative due to their unique type of thinking that helps to explore different solutions, according to research published in the American Journal of Psychology.

“[Art] is just something I’ve always been good at,” left-handed junior, Colleen Schinler, said. “Other kids have sports or math that they are really good at, but I’ve always been more talented at art. I really like it because it’s like an outlet for the things that happen in my life and emotions and events I want to keep track of. Some people keep journals or some people write story, but I draw out what happens to me.”

Due to Schinler being left-handed, she has a distinctive type of thinking through her passion for art, according to research published in the American Journal of Psychology.

“I always thought it was really interesting how different types of art can convey different feelings,” Schinler said. “Music can have different feelings based on whether you’re sad or happy, like it could be upbeat or sad. I think the color palette and different textures of art can convey the same [type of] feelings.”

Schinler takes as many opportunities as possible to further develop her creative skills.

“I’ve been doing art since elementary school. I’ve taken just about every class that we have for the art program here [at high school],” Schinler said. “I’m in art club, I’m an [art club] leader, and I’m going to be in AP next year. That’s pretty much what I want to do, I want to be an illustrator.”

Even though it is common for people who are dominant in their left-hand to be more creative than others, Karen Marchand, English teacher, does not agree.

“I don’t necessarily think I am more creative,” Marchand said. “I’m more logical, I have some creative qualities, but I don’t think that’s dominant in me, I think I’m more the logic and reason, analytical personality.”

Marchand still believes that even though she doesn’t carry the traits of left-handed people, her left hand plays an important role in her life.

“I feel like [my dominant hand] does [affect me] because things are obviously made more for the right handed world,” Marchand said. “I also feel like because I had that I’m stronger with my non-dominant hand than most right-handed people would be if they had to do something with their left-hand. In some ways it’s a disadvantage and in a lot of ways it’s a strength.”

Because of everything being right hand dominant, Marchand encounters many of these negative aspects.

“One of the big disadvantages that actually I encountered was when people started using computers all the time, and they were always made for a right handed mouse on the traditional desktop and then that’s how I learned,” Marchand said. “Sometimes I’m still not as dexterous with my right hand as with my left. Now that it’s on the touchpad I still tend to use my right hand to navigate on the mouse and I can’t get use to going the other direction and using my left.”

Overall Schinler never really thought anything big about being left handed, but “just thought it was an interesting quirk because being left handed is pretty rare.”

Right hand:
Only around 10 percent of people are left-handed meaning 90 percent are dominant in their right hand for writing, throwing and so on, according to Psychosocial Difference Between Left-handed and Right-handed Children, a thesis written by Jennifer R. States Fisher.

Students’ handedness is opposite from the half of the brain they use the most. Therefore those who are dominant with their right hand are said to use their left brain more, according to an article on Indiana.edu. People who are dominant in their hand are more analytical in their thinking and usually perform well academically, which is evident in right-handed freshman, Gretchen Guimarin.

“I think math is really interesting because there’s this quote, ‘if truth is beauty, then math must be the most beautiful thing in the world’ because it’s always true,” Guimarin said. “Everything has sort of a reason and within math you can always work things out. I just think it’s really cool. It’s fun to dig into different things and I think it’s interesting that you can go through and find different theories and always figure out if it’s possible or not using math.”

Although Guimarin finds math interesting, she does not believe it limits her to other talents.

“I’m really bad at sports, but everything else I’m marginally good at,” Guimarin said. “I won three state awards for art and I’m in mostly higher level classes and I’m learning three languages.”

Similar to Guimarin, Michael Kaufman, history teacher, believes although he is right handed is still more of the creative type.

“I like crafts like taking old furniture, sanding them down making them look original,” Kaufman said. “I’m the idea guy, I can see good ideas, but it’s much better when people can complete those ideas and i can sit back and be like, ‘yeah I was the first thought you guys put it all into plan’”.

Leah Enright, Spanish teacher, feels the same way as Kaufman. As a right-handed person she still considered herself a creative person.

“I never attributed [being creative] to being right or left handed. I would think left brain, right brain would have some correlation. I’m definitely not left [brained], I’m definitely right. I’m more free, and creative, and not so rigid. Although I like to be in control and I like to have everything lined up, but not to that extent. I’m also crafty, I like to do things like [make] jewelry. I have a niece and nephew and I’m always doing crafty things with them, I always have a bag of tricks that I bring over. I think if you walk into my classroom you can tell that it’s not so rigid and I like to have things that people would like to get their hands on,” Enright said.

Your dominant hand does not always affect your talents or passion, but for people like Schinler and Guimarin it does in many ways. Many things attribute to who you are, but keep in mind while you go about your life the role in which your hands play.