There’s an American retail shop that sells merchandize made solely for left-handers like myself. I first learned about Lefty’s, The Left Hand Store, from a TikTok video. Curious, I made it a point to visit Lefty’s when I went to Pier 39 in San Francisco, California this year.

You’ll find Lefty’s in Disney Springs and Magnets Old Town, both in Florida, but the original Lefty’s: The Left Hand Store started in Pier 39, just a few doors away from its most current location. Lefty’s in Pier 39 moved around the block a couple of times through the years and has undergone a few renovations, while keeping its rep as the Lefty’s location with the most complete selection of left-handed items.

This family-run business started in 1978 as the first store in the United States to specialize in products for left-handers. Why I have never heard of it until this year will remain a mystery. Better late than never, as some would say.

As a child of the ’80s, I was lucky my Filipino parents accepted my left-handedness. My Mama’s a lefty, too! As I learned growing up, a lot of Asian kids who exhibited left-handedness were forced to write and use tools with their right hand. Some were traumatized during “training” whenever their left hands were spanked or whipped to force them into using the right hand. Back then, left-handedness was linked to witchcraft and demonic activity, so many religious parents made sure to “right” their left-leaning children.

My struggles with left-handedness were most noticeable in grade school. I hated how there were only a few left-handed desks in my entire school, and I had to contend with a right-handed one, making me twist my body to be able to write on the right desk arm.

I was annoyed that I was the worst softball player in class because I had to force myself to throw the ball with my right hand and catch with my left glove. What this left-hander really needed was a right-handed glove so that I could throw the ball with my dominant left hand. Don’t get me started on where I was supposed to stand to hit the ball with the bat. Deep inside I knew I could’ve been an ace softball player had they given me the right (left!) gear.

In school, you could tell I was kaliwete (the Filipino term for left-handed) because I sported a perennial smudge on my left hand. This happened whenever I tried to write or draw with a pencil on paper, with chalk on the chalkboard, or with a marker on a white board. I simply learned to adjust and live with it.

When I tried to learn guitar in high school, I was told I was doing it wrong, so I had to adjust to the right-handed guitars of my friends. But I do wear my watch on my right wrist against the vox populi.

To this day, I refuse to shake hands with a person with my right hand. I simply twist my left arm and force my left hand to interlock with the right-handed greeter. It looks awkward, but I don’t care. This is my little leftist rebellion against the norm!

I expected my usual dopamine rush like my Sanrio, Peanuts, and Disney shopping trips, but what I didn’t expect was to experience some sort of existential crisis in Lefty’s. Behold the left-handed items that blew my mind while shopping in Lefty’s for the first time:

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1. Left-handed scissors have the left blade on top, reversed from right-handed scissors. This allows lefties to see what they are cutting, working with the natural action of the left hand. My whole life I thought I was just a clumsy girl who wasn’t good with scissors. Heck, I even had a scissor accident just weeks ago when I cut a chunk of skin off my finger and landed in the ER for stitches. You mean to tell me I had just been using the wrong scissors my whole life?

2. A left-handed can opener is designed to be held with the right hand, while turning the knob with your left hand counter-clockwise—the natural direction for a lefty. My brain got confused for a few minutes while trying this out. I forced myself to adjust to a right-hander’s world my whole life, and now that I’m allowed to do what is natural for my left-handed body, it’s giving me mixed emotions.

3. A left-handed mug may seem like a joke because a mug is a mug is a mug, right? But if you look closely, a left-handed mug, when held with your left hand, has the upright print facing the left-handed user. The same goes with a left-handed measuring cup. Measurements in cups and ounces are printed on the face towards the left-handed user. Compare that with the dominant right-handed mugs that we all thought was the only way mugs were supposed to be.

4. Left-handed notebooks remind me of Japanese books that are read back to front. A left-handed notebook opens from left to right, back page to front page, with the spiral wire on the right side, so lefties can write without pressing their wrists onto the wire. The “normal” spiral notebook was so uncomfortable for me in school. Imagine if I had used left-handed notebooks throughout my school years. Would it have made a difference in my study habits and grades? I believe so!

5. A left-handed measuring tape has a retractable tape measure to be held on the left hand and pulled out to the right. Just like a left-handed ruler, the measuring tape reads from right to left in both metric and imperial. Can you imagine gifting this to a left-handed carpenter, engineer, or designer who has been conditioned to live in a right-hander’s world, not knowing there’s a more comfortable lefty version?

6. A left-handed pen has a crooked neck and off-center tip, allowing left-handers to see what they are writing. The fingers are farther away from the tip, so they don’t hide or smudge the writing. This makes so much sense as I’ve grown accustomed to not seeing my entire phrase or sentence until I’ve lifted the pen away from the paper.

7. A left-handed pencil looks just like a regular pencil except that the printed text or design is read upright as the lefty is holding it with the left hand. I was confused, frustrated, and happy at the same time when checking this out. What a small but considerate change for the lefty! It made me look at all the other pens and pencils I’ve acquired and realized they are mostly right-printed.

8. A left-handed sharpener is made to be held on the right hand, while you sharpen/rotate the pencil with your left hand counter-clockwise, which is more natural for lefties.

There were plenty more lefty merch in the store, like left-handed knives, kitchen tools, and garden tools, but I have more than enough existential crisis to process with my newly-bought basic lefty tools. I’m back home in the Philippines looking at my left-handed scissors, notebook, ruler, pencil, and crooked pens, and wondering if reconditioning myself to use lefty tools will leave me further confused or relieved that after all these decades, I’m finally using the correct tools that match my lefty nature.

Repeat after me, kaliwete: Left power! Power to the lefty!

Lefty’s: The Left Hand Store is located at 39 Pier, San Francisco, California, USA.