Loading ...I resemble some of your comments, but certainly not all. My childhood was the early ’40’s. Father in the navy, mother working in a munitions factory in California. My sister (two years older to the day) and I living with our grandparents in Piedmont Oklahoma . At age 2 my grandparents decided I needed to become right handed, so they tied my left hand behind me for a few days so I would “learn” to use my right hand to eat and do other things. Instead of giving in to this “training” I just quit eating, climbed into bed and refused to do anything. I can still remember them forcing liquids down my throat but I was not about to eat on my own, no matter how good they tried to make it, so they finally gave up and figured I’d just have to remain a “retarded child”. By age 4 my sis and I were back living with our mom and new step dad in California and at age 5 I started kindergarten where my teacher again tried to change me to right handed, much to my embarrassment. Fortunately my mom learned of it and told the teacher to NEVER attempt that again, and she didn’t. But it did create a stigma which made me very insecure as I was then the object of ridicule by the class bullies, so I withdrew into myself and was not a good student.
Fortunately my new step dad became a State Park Ranger and was assigned to a campground at Lake Tahoe where I literally had a fresh start (thanks to my mom and new teacher). My teacher learned that I was a small part Cherokee Indian and used that to make me believe that I could do anything and everything better than others; excel in studies, excel in sports, etc. Also at that time I learned to love nature and have done so my entire life, having a care for all of Mother Natures wonders but little care for mans creations.
Ambidextrous? Yes in some things like baseball and golf, but probably because these sports required special equipment to be left handed, so since I wanted to play I played right handed.
But I owe it all to having such a wonderful and encouraging teacher (and mother) who made me believe I could do it. So I grew up believing I could and always tried my best to be the best, in sports, in studies, in music, in business, and later as a husband and father.
IQ?, well maybe not quite to the Mensa status. In climbing the corporate ladder I had to undergo several psychological evaluations and they always came up IQ= low superior, FWIW. LOL!!! I am blessed (cursed?) with a wife that tests over 140, and one daughter over 160 and the other very close to my IQ and an extremely talented and beautiful artist and dancer…….. but none of them are left handed and all border on being ambidextrous.
The successes I’ve had, and they have been many, I feel I owe to those who encouraged me along the way, and my favorite sayings are “Anything works if you do”, and “The harder I work, the luckier I get”.
Unfortunately, because of all the above I also seem to “see” things others can’t, don’t, or won’t, so these last few years I have also adopted “what is seen cannot be unseen”, and it appears that one sure pisses off a lot of people. LOL!!! All The Best From Silverngold