You walk into the cold, concrete chamber of Doom. Goosebumps begin to spread over your arms and legs. The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. There’s a nauseating pit in your stomach. The clock strikes three—the time of your final—and you, along with a herd of other overtired, overwrought students lurch forward. You, however, are different than the rest. You will not get to sit in the front. You will not get to be up close and personal to the proctors. You, dear reader, are a lefty. The egregious, overlooked issue of handedness-inequality is one that has forever existed at our school and demands attention. Students who use the left hand are stigmatized and subjugated. As the metal doors open, you walk in and stare off into the abyss. You only have two minutes before the exam will start. Your head pounds. An echo of your fourth grade P.E. teacher telling you that you’re a failure with terrible aim, (or was it sportsmanship?), fills your cranium. Cranium—okay, okay, at least you’re thinking about Bio, which is the exam subject you’re about to take. Oh God, you know you should’ve studied the parasympathetic nervous system better. You hope (in vain!) that it won’t be on the exam. It was. Anyway—back to the seat. You strain your eyes, scanning the sea of wooden desks. Ah, yes. Back left corner, or home, as you’ve grown to call it, looks like an oasis, covered in cobwebs, fraught with sullied, musky air and sunken dreams. You start off towards to distant desktop. You’re pacing ahead and quickly snap your head back to check the clock. Keep moving, you tell yourself. You topple over a desk and drop your pencils. Two of them break. Shoot. You regret giving your fourth pencil tothat annoying kid that sits behind you. By Jove, you need that thing now. 30 Seconds. Do you have time to make it to your seat? Something within you propels you forward with such zeal. You make it with two seconds to go. Phew. You hear the wheezing of your rushed breath throughout the exam, and it freaks you out, man. You think to yourself that you would’ve done better if you hadn’t been forced to rush to the back of the class, and you are right. While only 5 percent of the Academy reports themselves as a member of this minority according to the State of the Academy, this percentage is surely higher, but students are too ashamed to admit to it. Any student bold enough to fight the tradition of Lefties-in-the-Corner, which is so deeply ingrained in the school’s history and culture that it isn’t explicitly addressed in the Blue Book, may face disciplinary action. The “separate but equal” nature of this corner will be put to test if any student stands up. The left-handed community hopes that a decision abolishing the corner will soon be forced in Mock Trial.
