Practice

Left Out

Life is difficult for left-handers because they live in a world where everything is made for righties, such as can openers, scissors and school desks. Teachers and coaches often force lefties to write or play right-handed. Even the word of “left” makes lefties outsiders in most languages, such as lyft meant “weak and useless” in Old English, links means “clumsy or awkward” in German and gauche means “ugly or uncouth” in French. But things may be changing because left-handers are organizing and fighting for recognition. Recently, they declared International Left-handers Day which is on August 13. If this happens, then left-handers win their “rights” and southpaws won’t be left out anymore.

Playing First

Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play major-league baseball in 1947 while he was facing severe racial prejudice from fans and players during the first season. He received several threatening letters but he kept playing. Even he had never been a first baseman before, he played first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers and he stole twenty-nine bases, batted .297, and won the first-ever Rookie of the Year award by the end of the season. Eventually, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and more importantly he helped to break the barrier that had kept black athletes out of professional sports.

The Accidental Writer?

Stephen king is probably one of the most successful writers since his books have scared millions of people and he has published more than fifty novels and over two hundred short stories. But he learned his craft and became a novelist by accident. While the school guidance counselor was looking for a way to make king more productive, he got young Stephen a job as a sports writer for the reason that he wrote and distributed salacious stories to his teachers. The editor of the paper taught him the importance of careful editing and getting rid of the excess words and a writer was almost born. He wrote a novel when he was teaching...