November 27: Right-Handed

There has always been a part of me that has been fascinated with the human brain. Biology as a whole has always intrigued me, but it's the brain that I am the most interested in. With that being said, I don't really know anything about it. I know it's basically divided into a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere and each side of the brain is responsible for controlling the opposite side of the body. And that about sums up my overall knowledge on the human brain. I will now take questions and/comments.

Seriously, though, how cool is that? When I dribble a basketball with my right hand, it's actually the left side of my brain that is giving the command to do so. It's the left side of my brain that receives the message from my right ring finger that it was awkwardly jammed into the side of my opponent's head when going for the rebound and it's this same side of the brain that sends the message, "Ouch!"

Another thing that I find intriguing about the way our brains work is that one side is for a more linear way of thinking and the other is more non-sequential. It's the left side of the brain where our verbal, logical, and analytical skills stem from while the right hemisphere is responsible for the complexity of our imagination and creativity.

For as long as I can remember, it is this last little fact that has really bothered me. How could I let something so foolish bother me, you ask? Well, if you know me at all, I go through every day of my life trying to make people laugh. The only thing I care about in life is that people think of me as the funny one. In order to be universally entertaining, though, one must be a creative individual and I am definitely not creative. I'm right-handed. I'm more analytical and linear in my ways of thinking.

Sure, I have my moments (as some of the posts in this blog can attest to), but on the whole, creativity is just something that I'm not. I can't paint, sing, or draw. I could never build anything original out of Legos without the step-by-step instructions or draw a picture with my Etch A Sketch. Once my Lite Brite guides were all punched through, the toy was completely useless. Learning Photoshop wouldn't do me any good because I just can't think of original ways to enhance or change images.

I discovered the fact about creative people being left-handed a long time ago, but it's one of those little thoughts that has stayed with me. Every time I watch a movie and watch the actors write a note, I notice that the majority of them are left-handed. Whenever a friend lets slip that he or she is left-handed, I remember all of the times their creativity was on display. The fact that the girl who did the majority of the cooking on Thursday once attended culinary school to satisfy her creative "need" made perfect sense when I found out what her dominant hand was.

In the sixth grade, I learned that about twelve percent of the population is left-handed and a part of me has always been a bit envious of that group. For every one hundred people, only twelve of them have strong right hemispheres. My life goal is to make everyone I pass curl over with laughter. Some are trickier than others and for those individuals, I need creativity and artistry. I need to use the right side of my brain and I just can't. I'm right-handed.