Well, truth be told, I didn’t come in 2nd place in the spelling bee. Far from it. I DID however, make it to the 2nd grade class finals, and won for my class. I beat a little boy named Keith (I think that was his name…) because I seemed to be the only kid who knew that the word Grandmother did indeed, contain a “d”.
So- as the winner for my class, I got to go to the all school spelling bee, where I had to compete against 6th graders! I knew I would have a limited lifespan from the get-go, but I did it anyway (said as if 2nd graders really have a choice about matters of being in the school spelling bee if they make it…). My first word was “be” and I remember being paralyzed with fear, knowing that this was one of those words that could have more than one spelling. And I actually clearly remember thinking "well self, I can ask them to use it in a sentence, but that won't buy me anything but time, because I don't know which way to spell it for any particuar meaning..." After what seemed like thirty minutes of stalling, I said “…..B…….E…. Be.” Here is where I should add that I had NO idea if I got it right or not until they flashed me the little green card. I sat down and waited- petrified- for my turn to come again.
On round two, I got “House”, and I don't know if it was all the German school finally rubbing off on me, or early signs of a what would be a life of poor spelling, but I busted out a “H-A-U-S, House”. Red card. You’re out Gina. So, long story short, I didn't come in 2nd place, I simply got out on the 2nd round.
And I never spelt right again!! The End.
6 comments:
This is why spelling bees are wicked retahded for kids with an iota of bi-or multilingual experience; you just overwhelmed the jury with "Haus". Ok, so it's German, not your problem; the word has a similar to same shape in the phonological profile department as 'H.o.u.s.e'---they should have red flagged you right to the Department for Overly Gifted Kids but alas, you were smarter than them....dumbasses!
2nd grade is just hard! sucks to be defined by your mistakes when you're SEVEN! I remember, also in 2nd grade, I got the dreaded purple ribbon at field day, I know the well meaning adults thought a ribbon would be nice to have for the LOSERS but really we were still losers...we just had purple ribbons, there was no proud waving of our stupid little loser purple ribbons, we slunk to the back of the class like the losers that we were.
yeah I've had therapy about it, but Gina you must be bringing up some weird second grade post traumatic thing in me...haha
It's a good thing you were able to get into college with that whole 2nd grade thing on your record...
spelling is ok, but geniuses mindz work differently. so u get a bye.
serial killerz r good spellerz.
I remember a similiar situation I was in but it was the 4th grade. I had made it through a couple of rounds and was on of the final six or seven kids. That's when Parade (p, a, r, a, i, d) completey ruined my chance for spelling fame and fortune. Stupid parade.
HERE's mine... "aisle"- "I'll" was all we could think of.
it stumped the whole class so we had to redo- i got "different" correct.
said it with one f the first time,i guess i was whispering, so they made me repeat it and i added the second f! whew. merry christmas.
aloof anne finally reads through the entire e-mail. ug, yes, i've been holidaying and snowdaying, such a tough life. gawsh i see why my plants are sturdy and my friends are reallllllllllly forgiving.
interesting to hear how the moments of feeling unsmart can really stick with people, no matter how smart other people see them as...i guess we're always looking for input/ seeing how we measure up against various scales. or flighty and arrogant seeming, shoot!!!
Post a Comment