Spelling Errors, etc.

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What did we do before spell check and Grammarly? As a writer, I rely so heavily on spell check/Grammarly that I dare say I fear a strike as I lean on them too heavily at times. There are several words that I misspell or use wrong and probably always will.

Envalope

Independant

To when it should be too

Its when it should be it’s

Dilema

Everyday when it should be every day

And about a million more words that I cannot spell or use in the wrong place.

When I was in grade school before I realized I had a photographic memory and all I needed to strengthen it was to go to college when it decided to show up, I was the worst speller on the planet. Part of the reason was that I had dyslexia, though I didn’t know it at the time.

I also had a helluva time with math, flipping numbers constantly! When someone says the word math, I run the other way as it is not my friend. When my kids were taking classes like Algebra 2 Trig, Calculus, etc. they thought it super funny to ask for my help. “Hey mom, can you help me solve this equation that has numbers and letters in it?” Who in the hell said that numbers and letters could dance together in a damn equation anyway? This always baffled me and oh you can forget about those horrid word problems. That was so far out of my brain to put words into numbers. Again, numbers and letters shouldn’t dance together, it’s too creepy. (I just got a spell check for its because it was supposed to be it’s, see what I mean?)

And tell me how any of our word ‘rules’ make any sense at all. They apply sometimes but not every time. (Spell check because everytime is two words.) Okay so if there is an ‘e’ at the end of a word the vowel says its name, well I don’t know what vowels you refer to saying their name when you utter the word ‘apple.’ Shouldn’t, by the word rules, it be pronounced aypple? And why on earth would you put ‘silent’ letters in our words like in know and knee? Just leave them out of it so us dyslexic folks don’t get more confused. I mean you put letters with numbers, your rules don’t always apply, and now there are those secretive ‘silent’ letters. What the hell?

Now, for some of you with math brains, letters and numbers dancing together makes sense to you, right? Well, for me, it is like putting my underwear on backwards or worse yet, my bra. Yes, this would cause most folks to be a bit uncomfortable and how freaking weird would you look, assuming you have a lined bra that keeps its shape, with boobs on your back? I’d laugh at you, just sayin’.

I’ll tell you what does make sense to me . . . nature, animals, kids, and holistic occupational therapy. I also know that my dad tells me quite a lot that he has no idea how I work with kids with special needs as it takes a lot of patience and I tell him I can’t imagine not working with them. My’ job’ is not a job at all and I consider myself one of the lucky ones.

I have a story about spelling that one of my OT mom’s told me the other day and it just ticked me off because of the idiot thought processing that had occurred.

When you have special needs, I actually would be considered one of these folks because of my ADHD, dyslexia, and sensory processing issues, we are sometimes good at one thing but not necessarily the other. So, I have this awesome OT kid who has defied more odds than you would ever imagine and she can spell like a champ but her handwriting isn’t the neatest, though we are working on it and it’s partly from her retained reflexes so we are addressing this too. She takes a spelling test the other day and spells every one of them right in her handwriting but because her teacher has a problem with messy handwriting, she counted every one of them wrong because and I quote, “Your handwriting is too messy.”

Now, let’s look at this from logic, shall we? The kid spelled every one of them right and if this teacher had an ounce of teaching ability, she would have had my OT kid verbally spell them back to her to see that yes, indeed, this kid can spell your stupid words that don’t follow the rules all the time, end up with numbers sometimes, and have ‘silent’ killer letters attached to them to boot.

My point is, not everyone can fit into the boxes that society has laid out for us because we are all made and wired differently. I struggled so much in grade school and high school it is actually a miracle that I went to college and aced it. I mean you can’t expect me to be a kicker of the football team if I am a fish in the water. Big picture, people.

Today’s school systems in my area, just as they were when I was a child, box kids into one way of learning and that is a crime because you rob that kid of confidence and plant doubt into their brains and once you do that, their subconscious, which is a wimp, by the way, says, “Well, I suck at spelling/handwriting/math, I guess I always will.” I thought it about spelling and math but guess what, I have spell check and a calculator. I also have Amazon Alexa’s at every computer that I use so I can ask math questions and spelling too.

One of the things that I experience time and time again is society and parents expecting us and their children to be good at EVERYTHING. It ain’t going to happen so hang it up, folks and for those of you adults that kick yourselves because you aren’t good at everything, shift gears and look at what you are good at. Focus on that and you won’t be chasing your tail as much.

I am good at many things and I’m proud of that but I’ll tell you straight up, I am not good at spelling or math, but I have helpers for that and not being able to spell well has not kept me from writing 4 books with a 5th one in progress. See, you can overcome, you just might have to do it a bit differently is all.

Love y’all!!