June 12, 2007

• //No. I Am NOT That Special, Okay?

  A coworker walked by my cubicle and saw me working on an artwork with the Wacom Intuos in my right hand, while clicking on the mouse with my left hand. I guess it impressed her because it stopped her in her tracks to wherever she was heading towards and watch me work for a few minutes...

  Her: Hey! You're ambidextrous!!!
  Me: Oh, no. I am not.
  Her: Yes you are. You're using both hands!
  Me: Well, we all have two hands... It's really just like you picking up the cellphone with your left hand while you're writing the info down with your right...
  Her: No. That's different. You're working on your artwork with both of your hands!
  Me: Most of [graphic designers]  do...
  Designer 1: I don't.
  Designer 2: I don't, either. [Jeez, thanks, guys]
  Her: See? You're ambidextrous!
  Me: "No. I am NOT."

  So I finally explained it to her that "ambidextrous" by definition, states that a person is able to use either of his/her hands to do things equally well. While I am able to do just about everything my right hand does with my left - dribbling, shooting, mouse-clicking, eating... etc., I don't do any of the those actions with my left as well as I would with my right hand. To say that I am ambidextrous is pretty much saying that I do things equally lousy with my hands, since by comparison, my left hand holds almost an absolute disadvantage to my right. It would also be saying that both sides of my brain are equally (un)developed, which I know for sure isn't true.

  I am still learning how to do certain things (like basketball) really well with my strong hand. Trying to divert part of that time to learn with the other is a waste of time, because I would just end up being a mediocre ambidextrous person. When you do things well, no one really cares if you can do it as well with your off hand. Same idea can be said about being ambidextrous: when you do things like an average Joe, who the frak cares if you can do the same things equally as average with your other hand?

  Ambidextrousness comes in the few people that are TRULY special: Meaning not you, not me. Some of us confuse ourselves, forgetting the fact that we are all biologically borne with TWO hands. That means, at one time or another, however often, the off hand WILL come into the picture to help the strong hand in getting things done. But if you call that ambidextrous, you're really overestimating yourself.

  Like my coworker, I am not ambidextrous. And she walked away saying that I don't know how to take a compliment...

  • 3:13 pm
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