The spelling bee

My little girl recently won her class spelling bee, and it made me remember a story.

When I was in 5th grade, I won my class spelling bee. Then I had to compete against the winners of the other classes. I remember standing there on stage in the cafeteria and spelling words for what seemed like eternity, because the words were easy, and we were all good spellers. One by one the kids dropped out until it was just me and a girl from the class down the hall. We spelled and spelled, until finally she got a word wrong. I spelled the word correctly. It was almost over, and now I would be the winner. My classmates hooted and hollered, and I grinned with abandon. Then they asked me to spell cement. I quickly said, “cement…s-e-m-e-n-t…cement”. Still grinning, I watched the jaws of my classmates drop towards their laps, and I realized I screwed up. The girl spelled cement correctly, then she spelled library, and then it was over…..I had lost the spelling bee. A few days later they presented me with a plaque for being the spelling bee runner-up. The best part is.... they spelled my name wrong.