How I got to the National Spelling Bee

Last year I came in 2nd in the Capital Region Spelling Bee. This year, I was determined to try to win the Regional Bee and go to Nationals.


With some help from my parents and brother, I studied the Spell It guide, which contains over 700 words likely to appear in this year's Regional Bee.


http://www.myspellit.com/

The Regional Bee:

I worked my way through the rounds and spelled my way successfully up to the final rounds. I was nervous, because I knew this was my only chance to get to the national bee. I spelled words (see list below) until I got to the final, championship word: Gourami. I had seen this word while studying, but had never really thought much about it. It had suddenly become much more significant than I had expected. G-O-U-R-A-M-I. When I was told that I had spelled it correctly, I found it difficult to comprehend that I was going to Washington, D.C. for the National Spelling Bee.

Words that I got in the Regional Bee:

1. provolone
2. aggregate
3. cacao
4. biscotti
5. prosciutto
6. efficacy
7. asana
8. GOURAMI
   

Here are a few links to the local press coverage of this year's Regional Bee.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=670976


http://www.timesunion.com/multimedia/video/spellingbee.asp


http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=685969


http://capitalnews9.com/Default.aspx?ArID=115383