As a journalist, there is nothing I hate more than mistakes.

Whether it’s a spelling error, poorly edited photo or obviously incorrect information, it all makes my skin crawl.

It is only made worse if I’m the one that made the mistake.

That’s the kind of stuff that keeps journalists up at night.

Last week, it was my mistake that cost me some sleep.

I wrote a story about a recently released ranking of the best communities to raise a family in Alabama.

With Foley being my area of focus over the past few months, I guess I had my blinders on as I failed to notice Gulf Shores was also on the list … one spot behind Foley.

My story included quotes from Foley civic leaders, no mention of Gulf Shores and even a sentence touting Foley as the only local community to make the list.

Not my finest moment on the job.

Compared to other mistakes I have seen others make or made myself, it was far from the worst mistake, but that notion didn’t help once I learned about my oversight.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes over the years – leaving a baseball game before the walk-off home run, dating a best friend’s sister or buying the soundtracks to Shrek and Shrek 2 on CD – and like many other people, it doesn’t get any easier each time I trip myself up.

To be clear, each Shrek soundtrack had one or two good songs, but neither was worth what I paid. Sorry, Counting Crows.

Unfortunately, there are people in life that enjoy watching others make mistakes.

Waiting for others to stumble would be a tiring venture, I’m sure.

Life is about making mistakes, dusting yourself off and trying again.

For many people, myself included, the hardest mistakes to forgive are the ones we make ourselves.

I racked my brain into the evening last Tuesday trying to figure out how I missed the all-important letters G-U-L-F S-H-O-R-E-S on that list of ranking.

No answers were found.

No answers will ever be found.

The sun has come up every day since the Great Mistake, as I have taken to call it.

Up is still up, down in still down and most of rioters have left the company’s property.

Eventually, I remembered that there would be another Friday paper, another Wednesday edition and on and on.

There will be mistakes down the road – maybe a Shrek the Third soundtrack for instance – and I’ll do all I can to forgive myself faster next time.

Jay Sowers is photo editor of Gulf Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at jay@gulfcoastmedia.com.