My Journey
I officially started my spelling bee journey in 5th grade. I had been interested in participating and excitedly watching the National Bee since kindergarten, but was only eligible to participate at my school in 4th grade. However, I had to travel to India for a family emergency that year, so I began participating in 5th grade.
In 5th grade which was completely online, I won my district spelling bee and placed 7th at my regional bee. I was determined to come back and improve my placement, motivated by winning my district spelling bee on my first try and hopefully winning my regional bee to eventually go to nationals (my regional only sends one person to nationals).
In 6th grade, I won my district bee again and placed 2nd at my regional bee(The Denver Post Colorado State Spelling Bee). I was extremely disappointed because I was so close to winning the bee and making it to nationals. I started studying very seriously in 7th grade leading up to my state bee.
In 7th grade, I won my district bee again and after a very tough, 52-round long bee, I came out as the victor, and I would finally move on to nationals! I was so excited but also very nervous to participate. At the nationals, I was thrilled to make it past the preliminaries but got out in the quarterfinals on the word "surette", tying for 74th place. It was so disappointing to hear the bell early on in the bee, and I steeled myself to work harder and improve my placement for my last year of eligibility.
Finally, in 8th grade, I won my district and state bees again, qualifying for nationals again. I buzzed through the preliminaries, quarterfinals, and semifinals, making it to the finals! I was so excited to be one of the final 8, and I was glad that my hard work had paid off. I made it to the 5th round of the finals, where I spelled the word "Lillooet" incorrectly and placed 5th. While it was still hard to hear the bell, I was very proud of myself. The night of finals, after the competition, I was surrounded by so many supportive people and was able to sit back and enjoy myself after putting in so much hard work.
The spelling bee has taught me so many important skills and I hope to pass that knowledge onto you as well! Hard work leads to great success, and I hope that I can help you improve, work hard, and succeed too.
