Last week I had a great reminder.

Sometimes in life, be it personally or professionally, we need that. For me it came by way of a professional error. Being completely honest, it’s one that hit pretty hard, as I’m pretty diligent when it comes to name spellings and the details that go into what I write.

After all, I’m Teresa with no ‘h’ so I get the importance of proper name spelling. And believe you me, in this day and age I have myself double checking and triple checking a lot of the names that come across my keyboard.

Last week however, I had a great – and I mean great – front page story about a mother-daughter duo attending nursing school together. There’s just one problem, well, actually two, but the first I’m pretty sure tainted the story for the readers who know Nicole and Peyton, whose last name I misspelled.

Oh sure, it happens and I know those who have followed my work for years are likely shaking their heads and saying, “Teresa, get over it, you’re human,” and I am and I accept that; however, I also take tremendous pride in my work and that story I was particularly proud of for a number of reasons.

I first met Nicole and Peyton when our girls were in elementary school together. Peyton is the same age as my daughter. Two single moms, raising our girls the best we could and fostering wonderful relationships with them as we did so. While the four of us were never friends, I’ve always been fond of both Nicole and Peyton.

So, when I came across their story via TikTok of all things and then learned they had 53k followers at the time, I couldn’t help but reach out to Nicole for a fun story. At the time their story went to print last week for the May 6 issue, their followers had grown to 57k and it’s growing daily.

Meeting with them for the story was a true pleasure and I couldn’t wait to transcribe what we had discussed and send it over to my boss.

Following the interview, I texted with Nicole a bit, offering further congratulations, as well as thanks for meeting with me. Her reply was one which always seems to hit me and remind me of my responsibility: “We’re so happy it’s you telling our story.”

There are many things I have been accused of in this job; careless would not be one, passionate is definitely accurate. I take my stories to heart and feel both honored and responsible to be trusted by those I interview.

So while the errors could be corrected on-line, they cannot be fixed in print. It is customary that when these types of things happen, because again … we are human … a note of correction would be placed toward the front of the paper. That won’t be found on this story.

Instead, I wanted to take this moment and use it as a true teaching moment. A teaching moment for myself who, after 24 years, let’s face it I can use it. Also a reminder for each of us that mistakes, even in a newspaper, happen.

No different than when a server gets your order wrong, your mail gets delivered to the wrong address or you mispronounce another person’s name – it happens.

So here’s the correction which set me a little sideways in horror as I worked so hard with pride on this piece, only to muck it up with two mistakes.

Nicole and Peyton Schiveley (not Shively) are a mother-daughter nursing team which have taken TikTok by storm. Upon completing their current program, they will each move to a bridge program to complete their RN education. While Peyton is excited to become an RN, Nicole expressed interest in possibly continuing her education and becoming a Nurse Practitioner (NP).

That last sentence was my second error. No matter how many times I listened back to the recording I heard “MP,” which is what appeared in the story. Turning to Google instead of a simple text to Nicole to clarify, I learned that indeed there is an MP (Nursing Director) position in the nursing field. Given the context of our conversation this made sense, but it was wrong all the same.

So, here’s the lesson for us all, no matter how long we’ve been at something there is still room for error and yes, we’re all human.

It’s also important that I point out none of these errors were brought to my attention by Nicole or Peyton. They were both extremely gracious, kind and understanding. Nonetheless the mistakes were made and presented to me.

So my apologies to this dynamic duo. Anyone else who let this get the better of their day, well I don’t take ownership in that. Sometimes our best isn’t enough and what this life has taught me is at the end of it all, that’s okay. We live and we learn.

Cheers to Nicole and Peyton and all the good that continues to come their way.

Teresa Hammond is a staff reporter for The Oakdale Leader, The Riverbank News and The Escalon Times. She may be reached at thammond@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.