Life Lessons - Eighth Grade

Note: I'm aware I skipped seventh grade.  I hope to go back to it when I have something to write about.

Back in the day, when my mind was a finely tuned machine, I was a pretty good speller.  You know, before beer.  I was a key player on the Peotone Jr. High spelling team.  In fact, I still have the t-shirt and sleep in it occasionally.  “Embrace your inner nerd”, it beckons to me.  In 7^th grade, I competed in a regional spelling contest and won.  Only the regional winner got to advance, but the top 3 in each sectional were permitted to compete at the state level.  I traveled to Peru (IL) for the sectional event and promptly placed 4^th. 

I asked my parents if we could stay to see the event through to its conclusion.  The sectional championship came down to two Asian twins.  These girls were good.  Real good.  Like the kind of wunderkinds you would see competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.  OK, I’m probably exaggerating; I’m sure they were no Rebecca Sealfon after all.  After what seemed like an eternity with neither girl showing signs of faltering, we all grew restless and ended up leaving before a winner was crowned.

I was disappointed by my finish, especially when I saw the boy who placed 3^rd get knocked out a couple short rounds after me.   I still had a sense of accomplishment though and there was no shame in losing to either of those twins in my mind.  Plus I was buoyed by the knowledge that I would be back next year to try it again.

 

Fast forward a year to the 8^th grade regional contest.  They give you a thick packet to study for these contests, which consists of potential words you can be given to spell.  I was reviewing words with my mom the morning of the event.  One of the words she gave me was “legislative”.  Ha!  What an easy word!  You see, we were studying the three branches of government in social studies at the time so I had seen it a bunch of times recently.  There was no chance I’d miss THAT word.  I went into the tournament brimming with confidence.  In my mind, I was as close to a sure bet to advance as it got.  I breezed through the first rounds with ease.  Little did I know that complacency and a lack a focus was weaving a web of doom in my brain. 

As fate would have it, I was given the word “legislative” to spell.  Remembering my flippant remark from earlier in the day, I allowed myself a chuckle and plowed through the word as I always did when I knew the answer.  “Legislative.  L-E-G-E” … Wait a minute.  Something feels wrong … “-I-S-L” … Yes, you did screw up.  Start over. … “-A-T-I” … For the love of god, mouth, stop speaking!  There’s still time to fix this!  ... “-V-E.  Legislative.” … You fool. You’ve ruined us.  As the moderator rejected my answer, I stood in disbelief.  I knew my spelling of the word was erroneous; I couldn’t comprehend what had just happened though.  The transportation between brain and mouth had broken down at the most inopportune time.  There was no other explanation.  It happens to the best of us, right? 

As the event progressed to its conclusion, I silently spelled the words along with the other contestants.  If memory serves, there was only one word which came up that I was unsure of.  Yeah, it’s conceivable I still might not have won even if things had played out differently.  However, you’ll never be able to convince me that I wasn’t the best option to represent our region going forward.  I was inconsolable for the next couple days.  I even let the waterworks flow when I got home.  Crying over a spelling bee?  Dude, you’ve GOT to be kidding me.  Hey, competitive spelling is a cruel mistress.  She can really get to you.  Just ask this kid. 

 

As the classic film Little Giants (one of my all-time favorites) taught us, the best doesn’t always win.  Even if I would have won that event 99 times out of 100, that still leaves one time.  It’s a fine line between confidence and hubris, and I was unable to straddle it.  In some respects, I might be able to trace the crippled confidence I now limp around with back to that critical day.  Nonetheless, it was an important learning experience.  No matter what the stage, you should always give your opponents the respect they deserve and never take anything for granted. 

Boy, I sure hope there aren’t any spelling errors in this entry.  Grammar on the other hand?  I’ll leave that to the English nerds to correct.