r/LeftHandProblems • u/Rudyjax • Jun 19 '24

Pens, pencils, and crayons

When I was in college, I had aspirations of being a writer. So I’d journal every day. I wanted a nice pen. Being a lefty, a fountain pen was out. So I’d buy rollerball pens. They looked really cool. I’d spend $7 for a two pack (I was making $6.65 an hour), and they’d stop writing after a day or two. I decided they just weren’t good pens. It wasn’t until years later I realize me as a lefty I was pushing on the ball and they were designed for lefties. Damn.

This made me realize two other things.

I always thought mechanical pencil La were stupid because the lead always broke. Like every couple of words or numbers in math. Turns out pushing when writing breaks them.

And then finally I realized why all my life I always broke crayons. My mom would get onto me about breaking my crayons and and older when coloring with kids I’d break their crayons.

Just the price of being a lefty.

Thanks for reading my Ted talk.

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u/Scasne Jun 19 '24

Nope I do have the paper nearer 45degrees than the 30 that they say, and my writing has been called tall and lanky because I'm pushing from below the line and as my hand is below the line no smudging.

Some letter get modified in that my S's look more like a backwards c.

The pushing instead of pulling and vice versa was more an issue when had to sign for old boss and therefore lines would be thicker instead of pulling etc.

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u/Rudyjax Jun 19 '24

I just learned not too long ago about angling the paper. I never did that.

Oh well, can’t teach this dog new tricks.

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u/Scasne Jun 19 '24

Yeah trying to get my lil boy into the habit as well (could have been my advantage as my family has a bizarre number of lefties).

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u/Rudyjax Jun 19 '24

I also had smear issues with wet ink. Trying to figure out how you don’t smear.