International Left-Handers Day: 7 everyday tasks you may not realise lefties have adapted to

They say it’s important to have politicians represent your interests. So I’ve never felt more seen than when my fellow left-hander, Lee Hsien Loong, better known to everyone else as Senior Minister and former Prime Minister of Singapore, shared a Facebook photo of himself getting a COVID-19 vaccination three years ago. 
In the post on Aug 13, 2021, International Left-Handers Day, Mr Lee said he took the jab on his right arm, because it’s his non-dominant arm. And I found myself wondering if he had to turn his chair in the opposite direction before the injection, like I had.
The vaccination booths I’d been to were set up for people to get jabbed on their left arm. In other words, they’re set up for right-handers – like all of society.
While it literally took two seconds to adjust my chair before getting my jabs, I admit I hadn’t expected to request for a “left-handed option” in a vaccination centre of all places. 
It’s all good though – when lefties make up just 10 per cent of the world, we learn to adapt from young. That may explain why we’re smarter and more creative. Allegedly.  
But I promise, no matter the thousand and one articles that have been written about famous lefties and their superiority, none of us can escape the signature ink smudge on our left pinky finger. (A badge of honour or a perennial bugbear? Depends on whether you ask us on International Left-Handers Day or after an exam.)
Aside from writing and vaccinations, here are seven other instances you might not realise the lefties in your life have had to adapt to.
1. USING A CHAIR WITH WRITING BOARD 
An actual nightmare is finding out you have to churn out four essays in three hours during an exam… from a chair with a foldable writing board. These “writing boards” are not just tiny; they’re also placed on the right. 
In my experience, the solution is not to hope left-handers will turn their body slightly to the right, risking backache and arm cramps. It is to invest in proper furniture. 
2. USING BINDERS AND SPIRAL NOTEBOOKS 
Only thing more irritating than smudging your words as you write is having to write with a binder’s rings in the way. My solution back in school was just to chuck my worksheets into my bag. No binder, no problem.
It’s a similar annoyance with spiral notebooks – except enterprising minds have figured out how to monetise the left-hander struggle. There are right-bound spiral notebooks, which flip open to the right, designed specially for lefties. But I’d hope lefties, with our purported better-than-average intelligence, would realise it is the same as using a regular notebook starting from the back page. 
Or using a top-bound spiral notebook. Which are suspiciously harder to find than standard, left-bound notebooks.
3. WRITING WITH COUNTER PENS
The classic pen holder at information counters: Very convenient for people to fill in forms. And the elastic chain attached is meant to prevent someone from unwittingly taking away the pen. 
But with the pen holder almost always placed on the right-hand side, how do lefties ensure the chain doesn’t get in the way as we write? We don’t. 
4. TOGGLING WITH WATCH CROWNS 
Most people, myself included, wear their watch on their non-writing hand for comfort. And most watch crowns are on the right side, which is convenient for adjusting when the watch is worn on the left wrist. 
To be fair, I never took note of the awkward crown placement for left-handers until I wore an Apple Watch. I could adjust the watch face orientation to match my preference for wearing it on my right wrist, putting the crown on the left.
And honestly? Life-changing. 
5. TRYING NEW ACTIVITIES, SPORTS
I am, unashamedly, almost always the only person in the room who requests for a left-handed demonstration or option when learning a new activity or sport, from trying out tufting to playing the guitar. Most instructors are happy to oblige, but there will be the occasional few who simply say, “Do the opposite.” 
Frustrating but not entirely wrong. At boxing studios I used to attend, for instance, I had to swap “right” for “left” and vice versa in my own head when I heard instructions. “Right uppercut” was to be understood as “left uppercut” and so on.
Working out my brain in the gym is the life hack I never knew I needed. Because I don’t need it.
6. ADJUSTING RESTAURANT CUTLERY 
Tables are set for right-handers. More than once, I’ve had to rearrange the utensils that have been painstakingly set by wait staff before digging into my meal. Basically, the left-handed set-up would be a mirror image.
For every waiter who’s given me a sheepish look, it’s not you, it’s me.
7. OPENING CANNED FOOD
Every time I believe I’ve fully adapted to right-handed tools, my arch nemesis reappears: The can opener – a contraption more complicated than the military’s weapons system. 
But it’s false that it takes me far less time to leave home, go to the supermarket, buy a new can (with a pull tab!) and make my way home than to successfully use a can opener. 
And that’s because I’ve never successfully managed to use a can opener.