National Spelling Bee

I am not good at spelling but I am completely hooked on watching the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee every year. The final is always so intense for the kids. You see the agonies and tremendous stress they go through when it's their turn and then the expressions of overjoy when they get the spelling correctly for the trickiest words in the dictionary. Some of them came with 7 years of preparation going through the encyclopedia version of the English dictionary, not once but 7 times!! It started off with about 11 million spellers and then all the way down to just 12 finalists. It just blow my mind seeing what these 12, 13 year old kids can spell. I jump up and down for them when they get it right and shed a tear or two when I see their disappointment getting the ding (which means it was spelled incorrectly). Yes, it gets very emotional!! I am sometimes amazed by the poise and charms of these kids. Other times, I feel it's just too much for them. Take a look at the words tested in one of the rounds. To be honest, I have no idea those words existed!

Despite all the excitements I get from watching the final, almost like a parent to those kids, I will never want my kid to go through the same.

On a separate note, I wonder why they don't use the same list of words for all the kids just to be fair? To me, some words are just trickier than others... Well, I guess life is not meant to be fair and it's a true test of what you are capable of.

Here is one of the highlights I enjoyed... (click to see the video)

"Numnut?" asked the kid.
"Numnah" said the proctor.
"OH! Numnah!" "That's a relief!!" said the kid.

And the kid went on to win the competition! Congrats!!