Left vs. Right (Cumulative Acts Project)

We live in a right-handed kind of world. It doesn't seem to matter much that ten percent of us are lefties. Every day the left-handed people are forced to accommodate to many gadgets and items that were strictly created for the vast and domineering right-handed power. Spiral-bound notebooks, 3-ring binders, ball-point pens, can openers, and the old-fashioned desks in the art history room make life difficult and frustrating. The problematic items mentioned are only a few from the vast list of everyday materials. It’s saddening to know that because many items are made strictly for right-handers, multiple studies have concluded that lefties live up to nine years less than their superiorly numbered counterpart. This fact unfortunately aids the numerous oppressive names lefties have been called over time and perhaps sheds light as to why the dictionary is against the southpaw population as well. The Oxford English Dictionary defines left-handed as meaning crippled, awkward, clumsy, inapt … doubtful, questionable, ill-omened, inauspicious, and illegitimate. As stated earlier, we live in a right-handed world. Now that I've explained the background a bit, here is my proposal. Every day, for five to fifteen minutes I will teach myself how to write right-handed. Since I am a student, the problems I face with pesky binders, notebooks, pens, and even pencils (due to the unavoidable fashion statement of graphite on my hand) seem to be the most prominent obstacle I face because of my handedness. Starting March 22 and ending April 22, I plan to write the alphabet (Aa Bb Cc etc.) during my set time interval. As each day passes I hope to not only improve my ability to control how neat my writing appears, but also to be able to write faster. Ideally by the last day I will be able to pass myself off as a right-hander and be able to write with my counterparts. I will document each day by writing the date in the upper right-hand corner of each piece of paper I use. I will time how long it takes me to write the alphabet one time to see if I get any faster as each day passes. For presentation purposes I will have photographs of each page as well. In the end all of the sheets of paper will hopefully show a gradual progression as I practice writing more. My proposal deals with process because each day I will focus on what I am doing that day; every day I want to make my handwriting look as best as I can.