What a day!

Even though Jason did not advance to Thursday’s competition, it has been a great day, and a great week!

The written test started at 8 a.m. The room was packed—standing room only—with media and spectators. Afterwards, the answers were passed out and Jason had 20 of 25 correct, which was great considering that only one word was from a list he was given to study and the rest were “surprise” words. But we wouldn’t find out until 12:30pm whether that score was enough to advance.

Next was round two, the first oral round for all 273 spellers. It took over 3 hours. All the words given came from one of two lists given specifically to spellers to study, so if you studied, you were almost certain to know the word given in this round. Does anyone know what “milchig” means?? I suppose it doesn’t matter as long as you can spell it! An oral word spelled correctly earned you 3 points which you added to your written test score, so Jason’s total score now was 23 of a possible 28.

At 12:30, after this oral round was finished, the director announced the numbers of the advancing spellers, in random order. The minimum qualifying score was 22, and we could breathe again! By a hair, Jason would go on to round three after lunch!

Round three was the first round of “surprise” words. Jason’s was “habanero”. He asked for the language of origin, and was told “Spanish”. Stuart knew it should start with “j” and knew it was all over when Jason started with an “h”. Good thing it was Jason and not Stuart who was up there!

Two hours later (4 pm) … round four started. Jason got his word: “scaberulous.”

“What is the language of origin?” “Latin.”

“May I have the definition please?” “Having small raised dots, scales, or points.”

Jason made his best attempt…. But got the bell.

Spellers who miss are taken to the “comfort room” where they can process what happened, compose themselves, eat some yummy cookies. Stuart and Eb met him there, and he was sitting at the table, smiling and drinking a soda. Though disappointed, he was in very good spirits.

When the two of them exited the room, Jason had a short, wiggly interview with the Sac Bee Washington reporter. He was very jovial and smiling.

I didn’t get to see Jason for quite some time afterwards, because I was nursing Joanna. When I did finally see him, he was still smiling and told me, “I’m coming back next year.”

That’s the spirit!

The National Spelling Bee is a very positive competitive environment. They are constantly affirming that each speller who is there this week is already a champion. Everyone cheers for all the spellers. It’s a wonderful place to be, and a wonderful place to learn to do your best.

We went out for a big dinner to celebrate all that Jason had accomplished. One thing we talked about was whether Jason would really like to make a run for next year. Is he willing to work through the summer? Will he be committed to doing whatever it takes to do better? So far he’s nodding “yes” enthusiastically and I’d say he’s actually excited to start studying again.

We couldn’t be prouder. Jason has truly done his best, and with such a good attitude. He has never expected any victory; any time, when asked if he thought he’d make it to the next round, he always said “no”, because he has really tried not to get his hopes up. And we’ve always told him that we’d be proud of him even if he did not make it past the first round, and that he has already accomplished so much and worked so hard.

I think I’ll go re-read my post from last Friday!