Day Twenty-Eight

Conclusion! 

It gives me much relief to write this post.

I am finally finished! It's been a long month of doing this project, and I couldn't be happier to be done. No more embarrassing myself by accidentally throwing food across the table while I eat (though I'm sure I'll find other ways to embarrass myself), no more taking forever to straighten my hair in the morning, or even get ready in the morning. You'd be surprised how hard it is. 

I am finally finished.

Though, I am happy that I decided to do this project. I'm happy because I can say, to some extent, that I am somewhat ambidextrous. If I were to break my right hand, I'd still be able to do schoolwork. It would definitely take me longer, and I would definitely need help with tests, but I could still do it. I also know that I wouldn't starve, either. I've pretty much mastered using my left hand for those things.

Obviously, I don't know how driving would work for that, but... hopefully we'll never have to find out.

I think some of the hardest things, like many of my surveys suggested, was learning how to write with my left hand and learning how to do it well. I look back at the many times I sat in my Bible class trying to write notes and just laughing at myself. And other times when I would try to write nice notes to people and decided that I just couldn't do it because they looked so ridiculous. Haha.

I think one of the biggest things that I've learned through doing this project, is that obviously, it is hard to use your non-dominant hand. But not only that, but for people who are right handed, it is much harder to use their non dominant hand than for those who are left handed; that is simply because they have to use their right hand more often than we have to use our left hands. I just find that so interesting. I had never thought about it that much before. 

I also learned that this world isn't really made for left handed people, that there are lots of difficult things for them to do because we are dominantly a right handed world. Oh yeah, that's also another thing that I learned: there are a lot less left handed people in this world than I ever realized. I thought that we were more evenly split, but it turns out only 10% of the world is left handed. 

I also thought that it was interesting to find that being ambidextrous (or trying to be) effects the way the brain works and functions. I had many people say that it was good for the brain, because it worked hard to use your non dominant hand, and use it correctly. I guess it helped the neurons in your brain and strengthened the strength of it. But I also learned that it's bad for your brain because your brain has a much harder time remembering things and focusing on them. For me, that was interesting as well.

I had a lot of fun with this project. I got a bunch of good laughs out of it, and I also got some frustration out of it. But I'm glad I did it, because I learned a lot of interesting things through this project. I've always be curious as to why people favor a certain hand, and why some people are more artistic than others. And now I know why. 

Day Twenty-Seven

(Really day 26--another interview!)

Today I interviewed my manager from back home (I work at Gap, Inc. in the mall). I've noticed that when he writes at work he always uses his left hand, but our system on our computers/register is made for right handed people (all of the buttons to press are on the right side of the computer rather than the left), so I was curious as to how he deals with things like this, and what other obstacles he faces throughout the day. So here's my interview:

Q. You are left handed, correct?
A. Yes, I'm left handed.  

Q. How many of your family members are left handed? What is their relation to you?
A. My Brother is left handed and my Father was left handed before going through Catholic school. They made him right handed.  

Q. Do you know if your son is a righty or a lefty (I don't know if he's too young to tell yet)?
A. My son, who is three years old is right handed. I could tell fairly early. He just seemed to favor it. Throwing, reaching for things, etc.   

Q. What is your wife's dominant hand?
A. My wife is right handed.  

Q. In a world made mostly for right handed people, what are some every day tasks that are hard to accomplish?
A. Actually writing in a spiral notebook has always been difficult. I have to turn the notebook sideways and I write away from myself instead of right to left. I've tried left handed notebooks has well. Must be how I hold the pen, I guess. Using power tools is an adventure at times as well, especially circular saws. Hard to see where your measurements are because there on the other side of blade.  

Q. Is there something that used to be hard to do, but you've learned to use your right hand so it's not as hard anymore?
A. Not really. I use my right hand for many things.  

Q. Do you use your right hand often?
A. Everyday. I use it for everything but writing and drawing! But I taught myself to draw with my right hand while I was in college. I was afraid I would lose my left arm in a car accident for some reason. *Don't ask me. Ha But my right hand is my dominant hand to use tools, throw, cut with a knife etc. 

I think this is interesting because I never would use my left hand if I didn't have to--but left handed people are forced to use their right hand on a daily basis. He's learned to do most everyday things with his right hand (non dominant hand) because he has to. I never would have tried using my non dominant hand if not for this project. I just find it interesting. I suppose this does give them an advantage though--if they were to break there arm/hand (like, in a car accident for instance haha! Don't ask, he's a crazy guy), then they wouldn't have a huge problem switching to their non dominant hand. I suppose that in some ways, most left people are probably considered ambidextrous.

Day Twenty-Six

(really day 25--free day)

Today I was planning on getting up early so I could try to do my makeup and everything with my left hand... but unfortunately, I'm a sleep deprived college student who slept till the very last moment that I could.

I decided instead to spend awhile practicing my handwriting. I spent a good 30 minutes writing the sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" multiple times on a sheet of paper. I wrote in a previous post about this, but I chose this sentence because it has every letter of the alphabet in it. A lot of websites that I've read suggest writing this sentence a lot to get used to writing each letter.

So that's what I decided to do.

I will say that since the beginning of the month and till now, my writing has improved a lot. I think writing my Bible notes in class has helped a lot.

But I did notice that my writing improved as I practiced writing the sentence over and over again. Not only was it less sloppy, my writing got smaller and more controlled. It was actually interesting to see. I remember doing handwriting when I was little and absolutely HATING it, but now watching how practicing it helped me in a matter of 30 minutes... it was actually really cool. And since I'm studying elementary education, that interested me as well. Practice does make perfect, even if it is super boring. But things like writing are so important for the rest of life.

Anyways, that was just my experiment for today. I did eat lunch and dinner, and I'm still getting better using my left hand for that. Nothing super embarrassing happened, so that's exciting.

Day Twenty-Five

(Really day 24)

Today I had my classmates take a survey having to do with people who are left handed/ambidextrous. In total I had 46 people take these surveys. Here's the survey I had them take:

1. Which hand is your dominant hand? Left or right

2. How many people do you know that are left handed? None  1-2  3-4  5-6  6+

3. Do you have any family members that are left handed? Yes or no

4. If so, what is their relation to you? _____________________________________________________

5. How many people do you know that are ambidextrous? None  1-2  3-4  5-6  6+

6. Have you ever tried using your non-dominant hand for something? Yes or no

7. If so, what did you attempt? Was it easy? _________________________________________________

8. What do you think would be the hardest thing to do if you broke your dominant hand and could only use your non-dominant hand? ______________________________________

Here are some of the results I found: 

For question #1, 45 people were right handed, and only 1 person was ambidextrous. I had absolutely no left handed people take my surveys. I guess they really are a minority. 

What I find funny, is that most of these people had relatives that were left handed, and being left handed is usually a genetic thing. 26 of the 46 said they had relatives that were left handed (mostly parents and siblings). 

As to how many people they knew that were left handed (#3), most people (22) said 3-4. The second most popular answer was 6+ (which consisted of 11 people). 5-6 followed and 1-2 came shortly after. Only 2 people said they knew no one who was left handed.

41 people answered yes for #6. Most of the 41 people said they tried writing or eating with their left hands, and it was not easy. I can attest to that. A couple said shooting and archery for theirs... and they said it was not hard, surprisingly to me. 

And again, for #8, almost everyone (about 37 people) wrote that writing would probably be the hardest thing to do if they were to break their dominant hand. I a couple people say sports would be hard, and my favorite answer, "everything". 

Day Twenty-Four

(Really day 27)

Here's another article about a test done to see the difference in the non-dominant hand and dominant hands.

They asked medical students to fill out a questionnaire to figure out if the students were right handed or left handed. Then they did a couple of tests to test the ability of their dominant hand vs. their non dominant hand.

The first test was having each student tap their index fingers (at separate times) on a key to see how many times they could tap it in 10 seconds.

The second test, they used a hand-held dynamometer to determine the strength of each hand by having the students squeeze the meter.

The results showed that people's whose dominant hands are their left hands show that they have a higher speed when using their right hand, and have a stronger right hand, than right handed people using their left hand. But what's interesting is that right handed people generally have a stronger/faster dominant hand than those who are left handed.

I think maybe this is because left handed people are so used to using both their hands for tasks that we only have to use our right hand for, so they have strength in both hands, just not as much as right handed people have in just one hand. Very interesting study.

Day Twenty-Three

(really day 24 on our sheet-looking for an article in our library database)

Day 23! Can't believe it's been over three weeks. Only five more days until we're finally done with this project. Crazy, really.

Here's an article I found relating to my project.

In this article, they did an experiment, as most of my articles are about, to see the effects of the dominant vs. non dominant hand. They used handicapped children for their "test" subjects. The students were aged from 4-13 years of age. They chose 20 to use their dominant hand, and 20 to use their non dominant hand, and asked the kids to draw a picture of a man. Then they turned the paper around and asked them to draw another picture of a man using their other hand.

They noticed that most of the pictures drawn with the non-dominant hand were much less detailed and had much less coordination. They said that this also seemed to "reduce" the mental age, meaning their drawings seemed to be drawn by a child younger than the child's actual age. They estimated about 1 year in "mental age loss".

I find it interesting. Again, it's just so hard to use your non dominant hand. It takes so much practice to get used to and to be able to actually function with it. That's basically the message I keep getting from all of these articles.

Day Twenty-Two

(Day 14! Interview came through!)

This is an interview from one of my classmates. She plays volleyball and hurt her hand, so she's been using her left hand for everything. Here's the questions:

Q: Which hand is your dominant hand (which one do you write/eat with)?
A: right

Q: How did you hurt your right hand?
A: I hurt my right hand blocking at volleyball practice.

Q: What problems have you noticed since you've injured your hand? Any specific every day tasks that have been a challenge for you?
A: I have a hard time doing the basics. Getting ready in the mornings, tying my shoes, writing, driving, putting my hair up. I've had to take my exams with academic help because i can't write. 

Q: What are some things that you've realized that are difficult to do with just one hand?
A: I realized how hard it is to take care of yourself with one hand, especially when its not your dominant hand. like drying/straightening hair, doing my makeup, brushing my teeth. Thats probably been the hardest adjustment.

I thought this was interesting. A lot of the struggles I've been having. Obviously, not as extreme because I still have my right hand as well. But I thought it was interesting to see that driving is hard. I think for my next free day I'm going to try to get ready start to finish with my left hand; doing makeup and all. THAT should be interesting.

Day Twenty-One

(really day 22; free day)

Today has been a really chill day for the most part. It's fall break, and I've been hanging out around my house in my pajamas for the majority of the day... if that tells you anything as to how lazy today has been.

Mostly my issues have been eating, as usual, since I haven't had to write much.

My family forgets that I'm doing this project and it's funny to see how they're like "What are you doing? Why are you eating funny?", until I remind them. I enjoy it though. I've improved a lot since I've started this project, so that's good. I was eating lunch today (chinese food... with rice, which is always the hard one ;) and that's when they realized it. Though I will say, it took them a long time before they realized that I was looking funny. I was proud of that.

One thing that made me laugh today is when I was playing on my sister's iPod. She has Fruit Ninja on it, which I haven't played in forever, and thought it would be fun to try it again. For those of you who don't know (aka Dr. Brown :)), Fruit Ninja is a game (app) for Apple products. Basically you swipe your finger over fruit trying to "cut" them in half, while dodging bombs and stuff, as well as trying not to miss any of the fruit--otherwise you lose. I know, sounds lame, but it's addicting.

I was playing for a good 10 minutes with my right hand before I realized what I was doing. I was trying SO hard to beat the high score, too. I thought to myself, "I'll never beat this score now." I kid you not, the first time I tried with my left hand, I beat the high score on the game by over 100 points. I was pretty impressed with myself. 

So anyways, that was my big "win" for today. yay for my left hand!

Day Twenty

(or really 21)

Today I found this article, which is more of an experiment. Each participant in the experiment is asked to use their non-dominant hand when writing in a journal given to them. They were told to write the sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" twice in the journal for 28 days. Sounds a bit familiar ;).

They compared the results from day 1, 13, and 28 in the end, and the change in the handwriting was spectacular. I honestly was surprised--it looked like they had been writing with this hand for years.

It really interests me that we can all train ourselves to be ambidextrous if we just tried. It's an interesting idea. I'm actually thinking about keeping it up after my project for the simple every day tasks... like brushing my teeth.

Day Nineteen

(or day 20, a day of links)

http://hth.sagepub.com/content/8/1/4.abstract (full text: http://hth.sagepub.com/content/8/1/4.full.pdf)
-This is an interesting abstract about the differences in left handed people and right handed people preferring to use their dominant hands. It says that right handed people always prefer to use their dominant hand, where left handed people sometimes choose to use their right hand for some things. Maybe because the world is build more towards right handed people?

http://www.nwitimes.com/niche/shore/health/using-your-other-hand-benefits-your-brain/article_6da931ea-b64f-5cc2-9583-e78f179c2425.html
-This is an interesting view: most people say that using your other hand can hinder your memory, but this lady argues that it helps the brain.

http://theidproject.org/blog/brett-boyar/2013/06/19/use-your-non-dominant-hand
-this guy does the same type of project-just for a week.

http://guides.wsj.com/health/elder-care/how-to-keep-your-brain-fit/
-here is yet another article that says that using your non-dominant hand for simple every day tasks stimulates the brain function.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/study-says-to-avoid-mindless-snacking-eat-with-your-nondominant-hand-2351247.html
-found this article (and many others) that say if you eat with your non-dominant hand, you'll eat slower, and less food, which may even result in weight loss. There were lots of dieting websites suggesting it--interesting!

Day Eighteen

(But really day 19... *sigh*)

Today has been a really chill day.

I took a test in my psychology class, and I actually tried to use my left hand for it. It's a multiple choice-type test, and we only had to fill in the bubbles on a sheet, like you do on a standardized test.

But still, it was looking a little rough. Let's just say my eraser came in handy today.

Halfway through I decided it was time to switch to my right hand because it was taking me too long. And the guy sitting next to me was looking at me funny.

I think one of the worst part about this project is that when I'm sitting in class and I'm writing like a toddler, people look at me strange and I'm not able to give them an explanation, haha.

Oh well.

I also wrote most of my Bible notes with my left hand, as well. It's just so hard to write as fast as my teacher talks. My hand cramps so much. Though I am getting better. Slowly but steadily, I'm getting there.

I didn't have any troubles eating today... I ate a sandwich for lunch and dinner today (I know, boring. I CAN'T WAIT TO GO HOME THIS WEEKEND FOR REAL FOOD). So, not struggles there.

Like I said, today has been pretty chill.

Day Seventeen

(But really day 18 because I'm waiting on my interview)

This is an interesting book with an article (or chapter) that talks about non-dominant hands compared to using your dominant hand.

What I find interesting is that it explains that when using your dominant hand to do a certain task, and then you go on to use your non-dominant hand for that same task, your ability to complete the task is much better than if you were to use the non-dominant hand (or foot) first, and then the dominant hand. I find that really interesting.

They do lots of experiments on it, like writing, eating, sports, etc. They call this sequential effects after practice.

I think it very intriguing; it has to do with the brain and accessing both part of the brain.

These people did an experiment on four groups of people; 1) children using their left hand only 2) children using their right hand only 3) children using their dominant hand first and then non dominant hand and 4) children using their non dominant hand first and then their dominant hand.

They had them slide a coin across a table to hit a bullseye, and over all the children from group 3 aimed their coin closer to the bullseye over all the other groups.

Kind of interesting, huh. I've read about this a couple of times; athletes will sometimes switch whichever hand they use when swinging a bat or golf club, and it usually only takes them a few months to get used to the left hand because they've already learned it with their right hand. I guess it's much easier to learn if you've already used your right hand for something like that. Who knew.

Day Sixteen

Again, because I am still waiting for a reply from my interviewee, I am not going to be doing my free day, but instead doing day 17.

I did a "survey" my hall. Shout out to Davis 3rd! :)

I went around to my friends' rooms and asked them to write this sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", because it has all 26 letters of the alphabet in it. I timed them while they wrote it to see how well they would do.

I personally finished it in 41.6 seconds, and it was legible. Definitely not great, but you can ready it pretty well.

Of all the people that were legible, the average time was 1 minute and 13 seconds. So I must say, I am pretty proud of myself.

Although, I must say, I left my friend Katie's time out. The reason? She's practiced being ambidextrous for 3 months before this. So she doesn't technically count. Her time was 35.5 seconds. I'm a little envious. With her time, the average would be 54 seconds (instead of 73 seconds).

Oh well.

It was really funny to watch as they all went "I don't know how to hold this!" or "this is so awkward!" because that's been me for the past two weeks. Haha. luckily it's getting better. And seeing how well Katie wrote her sentence gave me hope that I will get used to this well if I keep at it. yay!

Day Fifteen

Still waiting on that interview response... so I'm just going to go for this day of looking in the library database.

Here is a book all about how to teach handwriting. Maybe I think this is interesting because I want to be an elementary teacher someday, but I think it kind of helps in how to learn how to write with your non-dominant hand. It gives lesson plans, but also exercises that strengthen your writing abilities. It goes into a lot of classroom settings for kids to not be distracted, which is not important. But it explains the basics as to how we learn and how to write correctly, and I think it's interesting. I'll have to try some of the exercises and tips sometime.

Day Fourteen

Note: I am switching today's day of interview (as I am waiting for a reply from a friend) for day sixteen's free day.

Today my friends and I were super excited to eat in the cafeteria because it was Frontline day, which our school is known for pulling out the good food for the perspective students. Sadly enough, the food choices weren't much different... which is really upsetting.

I still had my hopes up high, and was hoping that maybe, just maybe, the food would taste better. So I was super excited and sat down to eat, and totally forgot about using my left hand. Again.

It's such a hard thing to remember not to use it. I'm tempted to put my arm in a sling for a couple of days to remind myself that I can't use it. haha. But we'll see.

I didn't have any writing to do today, which was kind of amazing. Believe it or not... so that's quite uneventful.

At dinner tonight I remembered and ate all my vegetables without a problem. My corn was a little tricky, but I just used my knife to scoop it onto my fork and eat it up. Thank God for eating utensils. 

I've just noticed that I'm getting used to using my left hand. Of course it's still a little awkward, but it hasn't been horrible recently. So I'm thankful for that. 

Writing is still a bit rough... I think I need to come up with some writing exercises to do or something. I may look for some of those later.

Anyways, getting better! I'm seeing progress! Thank God!

Day Thirteen

Today was a pretty chill day in regards to my project.

I ate subway for lunch, so I didn't have to worry about using my left hand that much.

I DID, however, have to take a ton of notes in my Bible class. Tuesdays and Thursdays are always the hardest for that. But I have started to realize that it's been getting easier to write. Still not pretty by any means, but my hand is not cramping up or freaking out randomly when I write. So that's always good.

I also noticed that I wasn't having as much trouble at dinner eating, either. I had some type of stir fry and I will say that even with rice, I was able to get the food onto my fork and keep it on there easily. At the beginning of this project it would've been so hard. Haha. I also didn't spill any of my food onto the table, either. So there's a plus as well. Super exciting, if I do say so myself.

I laughed when I noticed that I wasn't having a problem eating next to one of my friends, Sarah, because she's left handed, as well. Usually when I sit next to people who are right handed we will hit elbows and such, but that wasn't a problem, and it was kind of a relief. I may need to work on sitting next to her for the remainder of the project. ;)

Overall, getting better. Much, much better.

Day Twelve

Here's an article about the right/left sides of the brain.

I thought it was really interesting. The whole idea that left handed people generally use the right side of the brain and right handed people use the left side of the brain really intrigues me. I also find it interesting that depending on which side of the brain we favor, we each have different characteristics. Like, the right side of the brain is more creative, and left side is more factual, and good at math. I love that because I find it so true; I've definitely witnessed this. Most left handed people I know are very artsy. Of course, this is not always true, but mostly so.

I took the "test" at the end of the article and came out with a whopping 5 points. Yeah. I guess you could say that I'm definitely left-brained. TRYING to use my right side, though ;).

Day Eleven

Yesterday was my "day of links" day. So here are some interesting things websites/articles that I found.

Here's an article about 5 unique/surprising facts about left handed people. I find it interesting that what hand we write with has to do with which side of the brain that we're using... left hand is controlled the right side of the brain, and vice versa. So this is actually an indication on other aspects of our life, depending on which side of the brain we favor. One that stuck out to me was that "they're angrier", which I'm not sure is always the case, but it makes sense with how the right side of the brain functions: http://theweek.com/article/index/214847/5-surprising-facts-about-left-handed-people

Still tying into the idea of what side of the brain we use... here's another article saying that left-handed people may be better at thinking quicker and multitasking: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/left-handed.htm

Here's a fun little game to "tell if you're right or left handed", I suppose. I scored a 23 with my left hand and 29 with my right... not too bad for my left hand, considering I could barley do anything with my left hand a week ago. Hoping to try the test at the end of the project and see if my left hand improves: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/rldot.html

Here's a "how to" on how to become ambidextrous... which is a lot of the things that I've been doing. I suppose I should start practicing my handwriting, though: http://www.ehow.com/how_2191083_become-ambidextrous.html

Here's an article talking about whether training yourself to be ambidextrous can actually help brain function... turns out it's false. It may even be harmful--and this wasn't the first article that I found to say this. Says it may hinder memory retrieval.... which may not be the best for me as I'm studying for midterms!: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-training-to-become-ambidextrous-improve-brain-function

Day Ten

Today I looked for an article in the library database and decided to write about how this applies to me and my project right now. 


I found this article to write about. In this article, people wrote in and gave testimonials about how hard it is to be left handed in a right handed world. I know I'm not really left handed, but I did find some of these to be true.


Karla Balsamo writes about how the desks at school are made for right handed people. Usually a classroom will have one or two desks that are for left handed people now, but that's not always the case. Or someone may have stolen it before I get there. I've notice this in my writing class, because that's one of my classes that has desks. It's hard to write with my left hand on a "righty" desk... and I find myself with my body slung halfway across the desk in order for my left arm/elbow being able rest. 


Doris Weber also writes about "overcoming the smudge marks" while writing. Which I have recently encountered. With my ink pen when I'm writing quickly (or trying to, at least) I have found ink on my hand and a slightly smudged writing trailing behind my hand. This also happens with pencil, with the lead smearing on the paper and onto my hand. So frustrating. 

Day Nine

Note: I am using day 10's free day instead of day 9's article response

Today I did fairly well.

I've started realizing that the biggest struggle with this project has been eating and sometimes writing--but I haven't been writing too much (thank God for technology!). I realize that if I were to be in some other circumstance (if my right arm was broken, for instance), then I would be using my left hand for everything, even tests and putting on makeup so it would be super hard.

I think someday this week I'm going to try using my left hand primarily in applying my makeup--just to see what it would look like, if I can actually do it, how long it would take, etc. But we'll see if there's a day when I'm brave enough to do that... haha.

I've also noticed that in my pursuit to be left handed, that as I'm constantly trying to remember to use my left hand for things, that I realize that we use both of our hands to complete a numerous amount of tasks. Like, typing for instance. Or cleaning my room. There's multiple times a day where I go, "oh I should be using my left hand for this" and then realize, I use both my hands equally in this task. So that's been interesting to me. I never actually realized how often I use my hands.

Anyways, I went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant with a few friends after church. I ordered the sweet and sour chicken, which was actually quite hard to cut and eat. There were a few pieces of chicken that I couldn't cut with my fork (no knifes were given to us, unfortunately). I gave up trying on a few pieces. My friends kind of laughed at me, though I think they were really surprised at how hard it was for me to do it.

Dinner I ate with a few other girls in the dining hall. I got my usual salad with cucumbers and such on top, and forgot to get my fork. So I proceeded to cut the cucumbers with my fork, and it actually worked this time! It was a bit of a struggle, but it wasn't as hard as usual. YES. Score for the day! I was super excited.

My roommate looked at me funny and was like "I'm going to try this and see how hard it really is", and then proceeded to try to take a few bites with her left hand. And she then told me that it was really hard and that she had no muscles in her left hand.

Exactly.

That's what they've all been laughing at for the last couple of days, but at least now she understands haha.

Also, another thing I've noticed... food is much less enjoyable when you have to work to eat it. Like I'm constantly working on cutting food or making sure it doesn't fall off my fork, that I almost don't enjoy the food anymore. So, yeah. I thought that was kind of interesting.

Stay tuned for tomorrow!

Day Eight

So... I failed miserably today. 

Or lunch and dinner I forgot about my whole left handed project. 

As I look back on the day I realize that I totally forgot. It escaped my mind completely. So I don't even know what to write.... 

I didn't have much of a struggle. I didn't have any victories. It was just a normal day for me because I totally forgot about my project. 

I have a hair tie on my left hand to remind me to use my hand (I usually have it on my right hand) but I guess I've just gotten really used to having it on there for almost a week now, that it didn't work. 

Oh well. 

I'm ready to start fresh tomorrow and do well. Hopefully it'll be a better day. 

Day Seven

Yesterday was rough (October 4th). Mostly because I was running late for class AGAIN (I love my sleep... Sorry guys) and didn't have a whole lot of time to straighten my hair. I had to come back to the dorm later and do that. 

The rest of the day seemed fine though. My obvious struggle to eat was there. At lunch I accidentally spilled a bunch of carrots off my plate because I couldn't control my left hand. 

It must be really annoying to eat with me haha. 

I grabbed a knife at dinner to have cut my salad up, which was much easier than just using my fork. I guess I'm

Getting better at using my left hand, then. 

We wen do IHOP after our movie night at school and that was fun... Pancakes are MUCH easier to cut than anything I've eaten so far haha.  They just ripped apart! So that was nice. 

Day Six

Challenges for the day: Bible class. Our teacher gave us his usual outline but said, "this one you'll have to fill out because I don't have it all on there. So write down the rest of the stuff on the screen." So that caused me to quickly scribble down stuff as fast as I could before he changed the slide over.

It was actually kind of nice because I sat there and read the slide for a second, figured out what I really needed to write down, and then wrote it down... instead of what I usually do (which I probably shouldn't admit to but...), which is just aimlessly write down without caring what it says. So I guess this probably actually made a little bit of a difference... maybe I learned something from the lecture today. Haha.

One thing I noticed was that as I was writing my hand started cramping up. Not necessarily because it was so fast, but because I'm just not used to using my left hand so much, and my muscles need to get more acquainted with it.

At dinner I got a salad from the salad bar in the cafeteria. I always get cucumbers because I love them, but they're always huge. I picked up a knife so I could cut the pieces of the larger vegetables, but as I was walking to my table, the knife fell of my plate and on the ground. I obviously didn't want to use it, and I was too lazy to go back and get a new one.

So. No knife for me.

And almost no cucumbers for me. I kid you not, it took a good minute or so to cut my cucumbers with my left hand and only my fork. It was so hard.

yay for no muscles in your right hand. So exciting.

Day Five

Today wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, really.

Unfortunately, I slept in a little late, and when I got up, one of my suitemates were in the shower and so I couldn’t get in. So that put my schedule off a little. After my shower I quickly threw on my makeup and blew my hair dry. I had about 5 minutes left before I had to leave for class, but knew that I wouldn’t have time to straighten my hair in that time. It usually only takes like, 2 with my right hand. But with my left hand… it’s about 10, on a good day. Sometimes 15 minutes, haha. Not even kidding, it’s sad.

So I went throughout most of the day without straightening my hair, unfortunately. I eventually straightened it when I had to go out for dinner, and that took some time.

Everything else went well today, though. I ate Chick-fil-a for lunch and then the cafeteria for dinner. And  most of what I ate in the cafeteria was soft things, like mashed potatoes, and then pizza which I used my hands for. Not too bad. And I didn’t have to do any writing today. :) So that’s exciting. Today wasn’t terrible. 

Day Four

So I thought I had been doing relatively fine for the past couple of days (yes, I messed up a few times, but that was to be expected). But today I had a realization as I was sitting in my class. My Research and Rhetoric class, nonetheless.

We met in the library today for a lecture about finding sources in the library’s database.

As we were waiting for class to start we were all chattering about our projects and what everyone was doing for their projects. And as I was telling everyone what I was doing, and I was reached for the mouse to long into the computer, I realized I have been using my right hand while I’ve been using my computer, like searching and stuff.

So I attempted to use my left hand as I did some searching online during class. It wasn’t terrible for the most part. There were a few times when it looked like I was having a seizure, my arm would spaz because I’m just not used to it. My muscle control is just not there.

Oh well. So now I’m going to try to use my left hand for scrolling and such on my computer. *sigh* this challenge keeps getting harder and harder every day. Haha.

Another funny part of my day: my New Testament class.

Usually our professor gives us an outline and we have to fill in the blanks. I totally forgot about this, otherwise I would’ve brought my computer (I used my computer for my psych class earlier today instead of hand written notes).

So I went to write my name on my outline and, oh my lanta, it was terrible. My friend looked at it and just started dying laughing. And then the roll sheet came around and I was so embarrassed to have to write my name in what looked like my toddler handwriting.

So embarrassing!

Anyways.

Halfway through class my worst nightmare came to be: he missed a page in our outline, so we had to write everything down, not just a few side notes. It was so hard.

One thing I started to notice was that I kept wanting to write my “s” and “c” backwards. In fact, I caught myself a few times writing my letter c’s backwards, and I couldn’t keep myself from laughing. My friend and I died laughing almost the entire class. It’s just so hard. Ahhh.

 This is my Bible notes... that word in the middle is "teachings", and example of my "c" being backwards (or upside down... haha).