I'm not stupid! Thank goodness...

When a woman is pregnant, she sometimes get what is called “pregnancy brain.” She will forget simple words and tasks, like that thing that makes the stuff in the morning (i.e. coffee maker) and to put gas in her car (happened to me twice). Its been almost seven months since I’ve had my baby, but I still have been spelling things wrong and using words in the wrong context. I had been chalking it up to recovering from my pregnancy brain, but after so long it seemed a little far fetched to do so. So I thought maybe I was just getting stupid. I mean, why else would I still be making silly mistakes when I am supposedly an intelligent individual? Then, I had an epiphany: I’m not stupid, I am just more willing to make those mistakes in the first place.

I have always been a terrible speller (I blame dyslexia) and had tendency to use words in the wrong context. But I’ve also always prided myself on my intelligence. So much so, that one sure way to piss me off was to make me feel stupid. I used to hate getting corrected, so I would get crabby. A little ridiculous, right? How could I live with being crabby every time someone told me I spelt veiw wrong (which is every time)? Well I tell you, it was exhausting. In the past I had learned to just hide it – if I wanted to use a word but did not know exactly in which context to use it, I just would not use it. I never hand wrote things, that way those squiggly red lines would underline my mistakes instead of my teacher, who would no doubt judge me. But since having Jack I am less self conscious, and therefore am willing to make errors and have people correct me. I’m not going to lie, it still irks me a tad, but I am making those blunders less and less, because I am re-learning things like “I before E except after C.” So there you have it, my epiphany: I’m not dumb after all.