Day Three

It’s only the second official day of being left handed.

And I have failed.

I did so well this morning. I did everything that I needed with my left hand.

But then I got to my Gateway class. We had some people from the financial aid office come speak to us, and I needed to write down some info about scholarships for next year really quickly, and I just grabbed my pen and started writing as fast as I could so I could keep up with them.

It didn’t even cross my mind until now that I was using my right hand instead of my left. It’s just so natural. I didn’t even think about it. I thought I had done so well today, but in reality, I failed this morning. Agh. It’s just so hard.

It’s honestly so hard to remember to use my left hand. I put a hair tie on my left wrist so I’ll remember (kind of like tying a ribbon on your finger). But it’s still really hard.

I ate some soup for dinner tonight. Still so hard to eat. I feel like a toddler learning how to hold my utensils again. It’s actually kind of comical. As I sat in my lounge and ate tonight, my friend looked over at me and said, “Man you look like an idiot.”

Thanks, girl. Thanks.

But I bet I do. I can’t hold it correctly and I feel so clumsy. Oh well. Hoping that will get better throughout the month. 

Day Two

 First official day of being left handed. And I’m already struggling.

I went out to lunch with my family after church today. Usually we go to Chuy’s, a Mexican restaurant in the Nashville area, so I thought it would be fairly easy to eat… I usually get fajitas and that’s more of a finger food. BUT, today we decided to go to a new place with our church friends. It was a pizza restaurant.

I thought pizza would be easy, but it wasn’t. Our pizza came out super late and I was starving, and it was so hot. So I decided to just eat it with my fork.

But, that required me to cut it. AND I COULD NOT CUT IT.

My left hand is significantly weaker than my right hand. I never realized it until I tried to use it. It honestly took me so long to cut my pizza up and eat it. It was actually amusing at first, but then I got annoyed because I was annoyed. I ended up picking the pizza up eventually. That’s not cheating when it is a “finger” food, right? ;)

Same thing happened tonight at dinner. I ate my mama’s homemade chili and again, it was so hard to scoop the chili into my spoon.

It’s even hard to hold my spoon right, guys. It felt so awkward.

I kept laughing at myself and eventually my whole family decided to join in being left handed. That lasted for all of 2 minutes. My sisters said, “that’s SO hard!” and my mom goes, “Yeah, I gave up awhile ago.  I can’t do that.”  Haha.

So anyways, that was today’s challenges. I think the hardest thing will be eating throughout this project. But we’ll see! 

The Lefty Project (Day One)

Welcome to my new blog. I’ve blogged a lot over the past few years, but mostly pertaining to my China trips/fundraisers/kids in Chenzhou. So this should be an interesting switch—writing about my upcoming project:

I have decided to be left-handed for the next 4 weeks (the next 28 days to be exact).

For those of you who are curious as to why I’ve decided to do something almost impossible for me… here’s my explanation:

I will be taking on this project for my Rhetoric and Research class. Thanks to Dr. Brown, my entire class is being challenged to give something up/do something different for the next 28 days. Whether that be writing a letter every day, drinking 64 oz of whatever every day, or giving up caffeine. We are all embarking on this crazy project together.

I just so happened to choose being left handed. Which should be really interesting for me, because my left hand can’t do anything. I remember I once told my friend, after attempting to curl my hair and use both of my hands, that “my left hand is useless, for anything that I try to do”.

And it really is.  My left hand is useless when it comes to writing, unscrewing jars, etc. And if you think I’m joking, here’s an example. Below I wrote my first and middle name in my right hand, and then with my left hand:

Yeah. It’s pretty bad.

I hope that by doing this project, I’ll be able to be ambidextrous. That’s my hope, but we’ll see if that actually happens at the end of the month. I’m not expecting too much. ;)

Now, to make sure that I don’t hinder myself or my grades, I’ve decided to lay down a few ground rules:

1.   I can use my right hand for tests. I have a few classes where I have to write essays and definitions out on tests, and I do not want my grades to fall because I can’t finish them. So for tests I do not have to use my left hand.

2.     I can use my right hand to apply makeup. You saw the picture above… can you imagine my left hand trying to put on makeup? I’d look like a clown ;).

So this means that I will be using my left hand for everything else: straightening my hair (or curling if I so choose), eating, and writing for non-test related purposes.

Those are the only rules I can think of for now… but those are subject to change throughout the month if I realize that they are hindering my grades or myself.

Tomorrow will be my first day officially trying this left-handed thing. I’ve been trying here and there throughout this week as a test run. And I’ll tell you it’s been rough. But I’m excited to see if I get better at using my left hand. That’s my ultimate goal.

So… tune in tomorrow to see how well I "hand"le this (haha sorry for the stupid pun).