Nobody Wants to Look a Fool

I am a poor speller. 

There, I said it. 

There’s no hiding it now

I don’t know why, but I just do not have the knack for spelling. I know people who just seem to have an innate sense on how words are put together. I do not. I memorize words, look them up or get them wrong. 

Several years ago, I realized my poor penmanship is a result of my poor spelling. It came to me one day, that when I could not spell a word, I would smush the wrong letters together to hide my inability to spell. 

I still catch myself doing this sometimes. I think it’s such a deeply engrained habit, that I may never be able to stop. 

Yes, I know there are ways to learn how to spell. In high school I misspelled the word “necessary" on a paper and the teacher made me write it correctly 100 times. What a pain! But, I do know how to spell “necessary,” now.

A new pizza shop opened near me and for the life of me, I can not spell “Mediterranean” as in Mediterranean Pizza.

But, technology to the rescue! 

I’ve looked up the Mediterranean Pizza website or phone number so often (And that’s a whole different problem!), my phone and iPad just suggest it to me after typing the first three letters.

I now have so many ways of getting the spelling right, I don’t have to resort to hiding misspelled words - I just fix them!

“Hey Siri, spell Mediterranean.” I might say.

Or, I’ll google it. I often say “Half my google searches are for spelling” and it’s true.

If I’m typing, like now, the document will autocorrect my spelling or if I’m so far off that even the computer can’t figure out what I’m trying to write, it will at least give me a heads-up so I can google it.

Doing high quality work is important and spelling words correctly is part of that. Nobody wants to look a fool and spelling words correctly helps avoid that.