The Little Bee Who Could
All right , good people, it's Tuesday. You know how this goes. It's booth time.
Today is no shocker but a confession nonetheless. I confess I'm a lousy speller. As a child, I dreamed of winning the spelling bee but it was a child's wish on a list of a gazillion other things I wanted to accomplish. In grade school, I knew my spelling was fair at best. My vocabulary on the other hand- not bad. Well, you don't have to be a great speller to read, and I always loved reading.
My mother was old school. Didn't know how to spell a word; she wouldn't help you out. She'd tell you to get the dictionary. She told us enough times until pulling out the tome became natural. I even began collecting different kinds and sizes. In fact, I have a hefty, ancient volume now. Despite my recent purge pledge, I haven't considered giving it up.
I digress. In the digital age, I gladly embraced spell-check, and my snobbish, wannabe writer-self thought anyone who didn't rigorously use spell-check was just plain lazy. Really, how hard is it to highlight a body of text and click a button? And at the office, professionally? Well, who wants an email circulating with obvious spelling errors?
Well, my corporate ladder-climbing days are over. I'm older and no longer ambitious. In fact, I'm on countdown to my dream job working behind a counter a couple of days a week at a nondescript shop where I don't have to think, and I can go home and tap on a keyboard into the wee hours because I like it. My aspirations go no further than the joy of writing and because it is my way to remember.
Okay, sounds a bit lofty? How about the old brain is becoming addle? My attitude towards spelling has fallen into the same pile of other behaviors I thought were essential to being smart and civilized, the Girl, relax pile. Some times I simply forget to hit spell-check. At other times, I no longer recognize words are misspelled and there are times, I don't care. At this stage, unless something I do or fail to do is going to cause harm, my attitude is relax.
Okay. I confess. I hit spell-check.
Gotta confession? Drop a link or a comment.
I was the opposite. I hate to admit it but I looked down on my fellow pupils if they couldn't spell properly. I learnt how to read and write at 5, a whole year before I was meant to. With the passing of time and especially when I became a teacher I saw the error of my ways. I am a much more reformed character now. Well, almost! :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
You're not alone. I was critical and judgmental, too. Almost, ditto. :-) Thank you for reading and commenting.
DeleteI don't suppose this would be the time to mention that i did win the 6th grade spelling bee? But i lost to a fifth grader in the school bee. The word I couldn't spell? "Marriage". I still got a dictionary for winning the 6th grade thing. It even had my name on it.
ReplyDeleteThere are certain words i still have to stop and think about, even though they are ordinary words. Guard. Necessary. License. And my dad was the same as your mom. "Look it up!" I did, for years.
lol. Do you know the movie, Akilah and the Bee? I teared up. :-)
Deletecan you tell me where the non descript job is...ha, that sounds like a fun job....my spelling sucks...i embrace spell check for all it is worth...now i can get you close...and find words that mean things and synonyms...we just may need to figure out how to spell it...smiles.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, as far as blogging/twitter goes typos and spelling don't matter much to me unless someone is presenting themselves as, like, a serious writer-type and they're self-publishing books and stuff. As long as their content is original or a particular post is particularly moving, I let them slide with a few typos. I get into moods where I'm just too absorbed in what I'm writing to go back and figure out if I wrote that word correctly or not. But I do make sure I'm using the RIGHT word at all times because bad grammar bothers me (although I'm guilty in some instances of not knowing whether to use "bad" or "badly," etc - I'm a hypocrite). Carelessly formed sentences or lots of big, pretty words strung together nonsensically just for the fuck of it... that bothers me.
ReplyDelete"Carelessly formed sentences or lots of big, pretty words strung together nonsensically just for the fuck of it... that bothers me." This is a biggie for me as well. To be honest, if I think something is written expressedly to impress, flashing, "look how brilliant I am," I stop reading.
ReplyDelete