Clumsy Smurf

As a child and into my adult years I have been what can be classified as a "klutz." I not only would fall, but I would injure myself doing typical activities of an 8 year old such as spraining my knee because I sat crossed legged (or the more politically incorrect "indian style") for 3 hours at the school talent show. That sprain consisted of wearing a knee brace which took over the majority of my leg and having to sit in a special seat in class because I could not bend my leg to sit at the desk. Despite the knee sprain, I experienced no further injuries except a few scrapes or bruises until my college years when I fell down stairs and sprained my ankle, but I have never broke a bone (unless the undiagnosed "jammed" pinky finger I received in 7th grade playing basketball really was broken as I insisted and not just jammed). To many who witnessed several of my falls, this is short of miraculous. I am still known for being a klutz, so much so that when my sister was recently pregnant with my neice she called my mom and said "I pulled a Jessica," meaning, yes, she had fallen. Now I also fell when I was pregnant, but only twice, for a clumsy person, that is a great accomplishment, at least to me it was and no damage was done, despite meeting my annual insurance deductible prior to the scheduled c-section (wait, maybe that was a blessing!).

My klutziness has lead to many jokes. I was a very easy-going kid and I would usually just laugh along with everyone else or even start the joke myself. The most popular of the jokes was made by my cousins and family by calling me "Clumsy Smurf." I grew up in the age of the little blue people; however, if you did not, as you can imagine Clumsy Smurf was just that...clumsy. However, in recent years and in retrospect my dad has decided that I may not have really been a klutz, but because everyone called me "Clumsy Smurf" I just took on that persona. I tend to disagree...I do believe I am a bit clumsy. I have gotten more "graceful" (Ha!) throughout the years, but I don't think my tendency to fall down was the result of a mental block lead to being made fun of. There are several reasons which may lead to my grace-less-ness.

1. I have always carried around a little more baggage than others and this can lead to being a bit off balance.
2. I don't look before I step, I never have (and I believe I may be passing this along to my son, but I think he may just believe he can walk on top of anything (a stuffed animal, the wooden puzzle pieces, every book he owns) which typically leads to a fall).
3. I am constantly in a hurry...for some reason I live life in fast forward (unless I am at home on the couch, then I live life in couch potato mode)
4. I am left handed.

Yes I said I am clumsy because I am left handed. Now don't get me wrong I am PROUD to be left handed. I have always loved having a quirk. I even wrote a 20 page paper on "Lefthandedness" when I was in high school and went as far to have a party on August 13th, "International Lefthander's Day" in which all my friends had to do everything left handed. I even had everyone sign in with their left hand. However, in all my research for the 20 page paper several sources cited that left handed people often were more clumsy. The sources tended to state that this was the result of people "switching" hands for certain tasks causing their brain waves to confuse. I have had to adapt to the right handed world plenty in my years. I had to learn to use scissors right handed (but not that successfully), use a computer mouse right handed and I don't even complain that can openers and pencil sharpeners are made for right handed people.

My conclusion, I am just a klutz, there is nothing "mental" with me (hold the laughter please) AND Clumsy Smurf must have been left handed.