The Bee

I watched the National Spelling Bee last night. It was great fun to watch the kids and to cheer them on.

This morning I attended the spelling bee for my granddaughter's elementary school. She had won the bee for her fifth grade class and was in the whole
school competition. About thirty-five students were seated on the stage as the competition began. The school cafeteria was filled with her school-mates and parents. The competitors came one-by-one to the microphone. The audience seemed to hold their breath as each student spelled their word. We exhaled with each correctly spelled word and sighed when a word was misspelled. The excitement grew. Lexie came to microphone. Your word is “tetanus,” said the announcer. “Would you please repeat the word,” responded Lexie. She took a breath and spelled “t-e-t-a-n-u-s.” She advanced to the next round. Several competitors were eliminated. Her next word was violently, which she spelled correctly. She advanced two more rounds. There were now only five students left on stage. Her word was “eliminated.” She spelled “e-l-e-m-i-n-a-t-e-d.”

We were all very proud of her. She will never again be eliminated by the word eliminated.