S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E, Spelling Bee

By: Christine Toorinjian

        Many things go through the human mind each and every single day. Should I do my homework before my chores? Is this answer correct? What do I do now? Should I pull this fire alarm? Well, what was running through my mind the day of the Leeward District Spelling Bee was: Is this even real? Here, let me get you caught up. I was one of the 2 contestants representing Keone'ula in the Leeward District Spelling Bee, the other being Courtney Lee. Let's just say that I've could have used a little bit more time to study... I mean A LOT. The competition was VERY fierce, and I didn't even make it pass the 2nd round! Words like forensics, miasma, stucco, hors d'oeuvre. You name it, were being thrown all over the place. Some that Ms. Firestone and Ms. Coffin, (6th grade teachers also attending the bee), had to look up on Google to know how to spell! I, however, didn't even make it past the 2nd round, having to spell one of the easiest words that the English language could've come up with. But we're not talking about that quite yet...

        So here's how all this started. It was at our 2nd quarter school spelling bee, and there were 2 contestants left. Me, Christine Toorinjian, and Rhyanne Javier. Now, I know what your thinking. What happened to Courtney? I'm getting to that. Rhyanne's word was "receptacle", but alas, she got the ding of the horrid bell of elimination. My turn: "Receptacle. R-E-C-E-P-T-A-C-L-E. Receptacle." That was all I had to say, or should I say spell. With me in first, Rhyanne in second, and Courtney in third, the represntatives for our school for the Leeward District Spelling Bee were announced. Christine Toorinjian and Rhyanne Javier. Then it was time to prep. We practiced and studied whenever we could. Even Ms. Firestone had told the class, (by the way, we're both in Ms. Firestone's class), to just ask us how to spell a word at any given time. Before we knew it, it was just a week before the spelling bee. But just days before though, Rhyanne had to drop out. And this is where Courtney comes in . From then on, all we really did was wait. Study and wait that is. And then it came. The day finally came where we would finally find out who would represent the Leeward District in the State Spelling Bee, (it goes from school spelling bee, to district bee, to state bee, to national bee).

        Heading down to the bee, I did a bit of some last minute studying, you know, to be on the safe side. When I finally got there, I didn't realize that there would be so many people watching. I mean, isn't it just a bunch of kids spelling words? NOPE. Anyways, me and Courtney did get to meet and actually sort of befriend some of the contestants. When I say some, I mean 2. Zoe and Riley. Last names? Erm, let's just get to the bee. Courtney's number was 3 and mine was 7. Lucky numbers, right? Eh, not really. Anyways, the announcer had walked over to the contestant tables and explained the rules as follows: You may ask for a repeat of the word, an alternate way to pronounce the word, language of origin, to use it in a sentence, and for it's definition. If you start spelling a word and get a letter wrong, there is no going back to change it. If you hear a bell, that means you are eliminated. Whoopdy-doo. Now on to round 1. Courtney's word was transience. Though in the beginning, the announcer said that her word was a homynym- which she thought was her word at first, which lead to me getting quite a laugh. But now, I wish that her word was homynym, because she got transience wrong. She spelled it as "transcience" instead of "transience". I was very disappointed, but decided not to think about it. Soon enough it came my turn. Persistent was my word. Of course there was no dinging of the bell this time. So on and so forth happened with all of the other contestants, and before I knew it, the whole round was over. With only 14 people left, I thought that I had a pretty good chance. Boy, was I wrong as ever. Apportion. Apportion was my word. I had missed it by a p. Just one little p. It was over. I was officially out of the bee. Of course I was sad, but happy. I didn't have to stand in front of a crowd again! And so the bee went on and eventually we had our winner. All I had to show for Keone'ula now was some good sportsmanship. So I brought it upon myself that I HAD to high-five every contestant that had participted on the bee. 24 high-fives later. I was out of there. But not without some pictures and a bunny cake as a prize! And maybe a little promise of a trip to Cold Stone later on...