A can of alphabet soup
The semester before my mission, I began to realize that I'm a bit of a human dictionary. I can't always define a word, but if I've ever heard a word chances are pretty good that I can spell it. It's not really a conscious thing, though. If I try to think about how a word is spelled, I'll have trouble with it. However, if I just turn off my brain and rattle off a series of letters, chances are very good that it will be correct.
A few weeks ago, I began seeing posters around campus for a BYU Spelling Bee. Having fond memories of elementary school spelling bees, I decided to sign up. In fact, I got really excited about it. All my co-workers and friends knew where I would be that night.
As the night of the Spelling Bee arrived, myself and ten other contestants showed up. After a few rounds spelling words such as "dog" and "kaleidescope", the contestants were narrowed down to two. I and one girl remained. We were very equally matched, sparring back and forth for a number of rounds.
The rules declared that in order be declared champion, the winner had to both win the final round and correctly spell one last championship word. Both of us had reached the championship word a few times, only to misspell by one letter. I was especially disappointed to misspell "ursprache", since I had run across it in my perusals of spelling bee lists just earlier that day. ("Ersprache" is not correct, in case you were wondering.)
Finally, the judges declared the elimination of the championship word in order to finish the spelling bee at a reasonable hour. My opponent, (whose name I would give if I could remember it,) managed to best me the next round, and was thus declared the winner.
This was actually okay, though. The first prize was a factory-sealed game of Scrabble. Second place received a can of alphabet soup. I already have Scrabble. I did not, however, have a single can of alphabet soup. So in the end, things all worked out for the best. Congratulations to whatever-her-name-is that won. You did great.
It must be time to find some new writers.
P.S. To the girl whose name I can't remember: Congratulations. You did great, and it was a lot of fun. I look forward to a rematch next year.
6 comments:
This makes me want to hurry and submit a writer application with the name BBZOKGRRKEEE. HA! Congrats.
I want the scrabble game.
If you really loved me, you'd have won it for me. I weep.
Also, I like that story.
That was so fun! If you do it next year, I'll come watch you again.
p.s. Have you still not eaten that soup?
p.p.s. Sorry, Wally III; that's been thought of before. ;)
Damaged psyche since age 12.
A spelling bee.
Word: "minuscule"
That's right: m-i-n-u-s-c-u-l-e
The spelling the teacher gave:
m-i-n-e-s-c-u-l-e
Imminent elimination.
Imminent elimination on account of faulty pedagogue.
Emotional scars at 25.
Not a minuscule memory.
Ouch... tough one... alright... start training with that alphabet soup. The training begins now! :) Maybe next years game will be Boggle. If you are into word games though you should definitely look into Quiddler.
It's a fun game :).
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