I'm a Writer, Not a Doctor

Thank God I write, because I hate medicine.

As I kid I always wanted to write, but now that I'm older I wonder if my aversion to medicine had just as much to do with my career choice.

My sister and sister-in-law are nurses, and I have a couple friends who are doctors. I think of them headed off to work each morning, knowing that one mistake could hurt or possibly kill someone. How do they handle the stress? I stress out just sitting down to write an article, know the worst I can do is litter the thing with typos.

I stress for good reason. I've made my share of mistakes.

• I've given people gratuitous names changes in legal documents.

• Used "past" when I meant "passed".

• Created such original typos that coworkers started calling them "Didos".

But what's the worst that's ever happened? Strange looks? Rewritten documents? Coworkers wondering if English is my mother tongue? I could handle that. I could hire a proofer. 

But what if someone's life depended on whether I could spell "occasion" without spell check? I can't. People would drop like flies.

That's why each day I thank God I'm in communication instead of medicine. I'll gladly sit at my keyboard writing articles about cures for diseases, editing doctors' memoirs, or even creating some cool marketing piece to promote flu shots. No one's life will be in danger because I wrote "canvas" instead of "career".