In the ever-present question of whether I am a leftist or a rightist, I will always be a leftist. Not because I really want to, but because I feel like I was made for it. At least this is what I felt as a kid.

I am a lefty. Being a lefty is hard. When you are born, and you are starting to write at a certain age, and you’re using your left hand by any chance, everybody would start to think that you have some sort of disease. Much like being a leftist, apparently.

They say, when you are big in life, you will get a seat, a chair in every respectable room in a society. For now, I am just waiting for a lefty seat where I can sit comfortably during my exams. Being a lefty is hard; even writing feels very tough when you are a lefty. I feel every lefty creates their foundation of being a leftist when they learn to write on those spiral-bound notebooks. You would not know how much that hurts. You would not know how left out one might feel while trying to gain knowledge.

This is where the inequality in life is felt. Where it is felt, when you realise that everything has been designed for the big people. The desks, the chairs, the scissors, the notebooks… apparently, even education has a preferred political leaning. The biggest issue would come during exams, where your hands used to bump into the person’s elbow next to you. Which most inevitably would cause your examiner to take your seat somewhere else, alone. This discrimination, I tell you.

At some point in life, being a lefty was also embarrassing. People would ask, “Which tasks do you use your left hand for?” “Do you eat with it too?” People would look at you like you are some sort of new monkey in a zoo. You might as well show them some dancing.

It’s not the easiest thing for your parents to handle, either. The first thing a relative would tell your parents after taking a look at you would be, “Have you tried making him use his right hand?” Apparently, their son was also starting to write with his left hand as a kid, but the bashings set them right. Well, you know both right and righty. This only leaves you to think, Is my term for bashing online?

“Left” has historically had negative associations in various languages/cultures, including sinister coming from Latin for “left”. Historically, I would always be on the left side of history. Historically, I would always be a bad omen. Historically, I would always be a leftist. 

I gladly choose to be on that side.