As a very young child, I used to think “Dexter” was short for “dextrous.”  

I’m not kidding, and I had somehow thought that the name of the cartoon Dexter’s Lab was a pun on the fact that the eponymous character was both smart and could put both hands to use while he was doing it.

I’m considerably wiser today, having learned the meaning of ambidextrous. I’ve also taught myself how to apply it – and might not have started applying it at all if the above confusion in my head hadn’t taken place.

When I look up ambidextrous in the dictionary not long after my young mind’s mistake, I realized that it wasn’t a new concept.

While I didn’t know the word ambidextrous, the concept of using both hands for everyday tasks wasn’t strange to me at this point. I had grown up seeing it.

My aunt made a regular habit of using both hands: to open doors, to leaf through books, to write or apply make-up before work.

When I asked her, she showed me how. 

I started out by filling in her collection of crosswords left-handed instead. I moved on by browsing through her books on calligraphy and practicing while alternating hands, or just by drawing mustaches on magazine covers with both hands.

Then, she taught me to write backwards and in circles. Then how to use chopsticks. Then how to use knives and forks with differing hands.

The skill stuck.

Today, the onset of arthritis in the right hand faster than the left has meant that this skill has become one of the most useful, daily ones I apply.