A Zest for Spelling

By the time my son reached 5th grade, he had an extensive vocabulary. His comprehension of most words had increased as well. That year, he participated in his classroom spelling bee and won! Winning the class spelling bee guaranteed him a spot in the school wide spelling bee.

I was proud and nervous and the same time. Proud because I knew how far he had come and how hard he had worked to reach this point. I was nervous because this was his first time ever having to speak in front of a large crowd. I was worried about how the crowd would react to his speech and quirkiness. I was also nervous about my reaction if that happened and how we both would feel afterwards. I talked with my son that evening. I wanted to know how he felt and if he was ready to participate in what would be a big event to him. To my surprise, he was ecstatic! His happiness and excitement overshadowed my feelings of doubt and worry. So every evening until the big day, I helped him study and prepare. We went over the rules and what was to be expected of all participants. Finally the big day had arrived! I made sure we had a good breakfast and that he was dressed nicely. He assured me that he was ready and so was I. The audience was filled with family and friends of spelling bee participants, along with 4th and 5th grade classes, teachers, faculty and staff.

I decided to bring two of my son’s biggest cheerleaders with me, his little sister and my best friend. After saying the pledge and listening to the opening announcements, it was time for the spelling bee to begin. One by one each amazing student bravely stood in front of an audience and spelled the word they were given.

Of course, some students spelled their given word correctly and some did not. At last, it was my son’s turn. As soon as he approached the microphone I immediately heard snickering from fellow students in the crowd. This angered me! Yet, when I looked at my son on stage he seemed to be unfazed. He was given his first word and he nailed it! Round after round went by and he didn’t misspell one word. At this point, he and others were spelling words that I misspelled in my head as they were called. As a matter of fact, he was the only student that asked for a word to be used tin a sentence. My son ended up being one of the last two participants left on stage. They were both 5th graders. The final word given to my son was sombrero. Unfortunately, he misspelled it. However, he would have gotten another shot at a different word if the other participant misspelled his given word. The last student approached the microphone and was given the last and final word to spell. He spelled it correctly, thus winning the school spelling bee. That winning word was zest. Trophies were not given that year to spelling bee participants. However, I was so proud that I went out and had one made. 