What do Julia Roberts, Barack Obama, Jimi Hendrix, Leonardo da Vinci have in common? Besides the fact that they’re all famous for one thing or another, they’re all also left-handed.

            Eleven to fifteen percent of the adult population in the world is left-handed, which means that one in ten people will be left-handed. Generally speaking, a left-handed person is someone who writes and performs everyday tasks with their left-hand. But some lefties are considered ambidextrous, meaning they can write and perform tasks with both their left and right hands.

            Those of you who are left-handed are some of the lucky few who truly know what it’s like to be legitimately different from the rest of the population.

            Unless junior Rachel McCloud was the President of the United States or a famous musician or actress, she probably would have never thought she had anything in common with any of the previously mentioned household names.

            McCloud finds some of the simplest everyday to be a difficult due to left-handedness.

            “­­When I write in school I always end up bumping elbows with the person sitting next to me and it’s extremely frustrating. Little things like using special left-handed scissors and bumping into people when writing are things you just have to cope with because you’re left-handed,” she said.

            Throughout history being left-handed has been looked down upon and a person was often thought of as being spawn of the devil if he or she were left-handed. The English word sinister comes from the Latin word sinestra which originally means left, supporting the popular belief that being left-handed is evil.

Left-handedness was looked upon as a nasty, degrading habit rather than a special trait. Up until recently being left-handed was socially unacceptable and children in school were forced to learn to write and perform activities with their right hand.

            Kitchen appliances, guitars, zippers on pants, and dozens of other household items are made for mainly right-handed use which can be frustrating to many left-handers. Egg beaters, spatulas, utensils are only some of the many things that can be specially made for left-handed use.

            Depending on who you talk to a lot of people believe that lefties have an advantage in fist fighting, baseball, basketball and other sports that involve strong hand-eye coordination. Though it’s never been proven that left-handed people have an advantage over right-handers, it’s probably a fact due to the fact that the right side of the brain is dominant in left-handed people, enabling them to pay attention to details and be more intuitive. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa.    When meeting new teachers at the beginning of a new school year, one thing most students probably don’t notice is whether their teachers are right-handed or left-handed. About ten percent of the teachers here at CHS are left-handed. One such person is math teacher Chuck Bragg.

            “Being left-handed wasn’t really too much of a problem for me in school but it did have its drawbacks, like winding the stem on an old-fashioned watch. The stems were always on the upper right side so using my left hand to turn it involved me twisting my arm in weird directions,” said Mr. Bragg.