Find and replace

While I was working as a proofreader in a publishing house, I had the chance to share my office with a very special lady, a professional, who was willing to share her knowledge. Maybe it is because of her that I learnt the most beautiful lesson of them all – if you know something, the best you can do is to share that knowledge, it’s this way that the circle is complete. And since I had years of experience being a teacher, her lesson touched fruitful land.

In life, I reckon it is important to find models, whether we search for them or not. Those Eureka moments are, without a doubt, chances for one to feel one’s brain alive, especially since it is a conscious way to meet it and see what those neurons are all about. Quoting Chandler, when do you ever feel your brain (of course, paraphrasing, because for that particular moment Chandler was referring to Joey’s ears – and yes, Friends series will always be a reference)?

Well, this particular lady I am referring to taught me a lot, much of the things being related to the errors that we make while writing or pronouncing: drawing pin (piuneză in Romanian), location (locație in Romanian), and the most important lesson of them all – find and replace command.

I always enjoyed Romanian classes, though I never was a brilliant student. But I must admit that, throughout the years, I have become somewhat of a Ross to the persons in my life. It came as a realization when I heard my husband, sitting in the dentist’s chair, saying the following: ‘Oh, I must correct what I have just said, otherwise my wife will judge me for this cacophony’.

Well, both drawing pin and location had been used incorrectly by me. Some people have it in them, that gentleness, in order for one to not be ashamed of oneself for saying something wrong. Something that encourages one to keep coming back with questions, concerns or curiosities. I absolutely adore these people. Rightfully, statues should be erected in their honor. This lady told me about the correct form of the aforementioned words, and ever since I have being correctly using those words even though I received funny looks.

I remember when everybody started using the word location. It sounded fancy and we all loved using it. But when I found out that in Romanian the meaning was rent, I started paying more attention to the words in fashion and always looked for guidance on the dexonline site. Again, paraphrasing our president – it’s better to be prepared than to not be prepared.

The greatest trick was when I found out about the command Ctrl + H (find and replace). Well, when you work with pages and pages in Word you better know some tricks. But aside from its main function, I do believe that sometimes find and replace can do miracles – giving one directions for cleansing. I guess everything can do with a little brushing up, whether it’s information or just simply replacing the old and not functioning anymore with the new.

I get it, sometimes I may go the extra mile and see things that are not exactly there due to my writing as vocation. But what if, starting from today, we put this command to great justice. Wouldn’t that be great to make sure we find and replace all those things that are not working for us anymore?!

I took an easy step. By starting with replacing coffee with Masala tea, I apply other criteria when buying books and starting exploring other domains (well, not quantum physics).

What about you? If you used this command, what would you replace and with what would make the replacements?