On Saturday, March 10, I went to the Vancouver Regional Spelling Bee in the UBC Chan Centre representing our school. It was an awesome adventure and this was an experience that I�d never forget from participating in this special event.
I came to the Chan Centre at about 8:30 am. At the entrance, I received a goodie bag, a package with a shirt that labels CanSpell, and my Number 30 tag. The other 69 finalists, ranging from Grade 4 ~ 8, arrived eventually. At first, I was quite intimidated at the sight of all the people that�d compete with me onstage, especially knowing that all of us had made it this far.
The inside of this building was amazing. It was huge, not minding there were lights everywhere and photographers circling around the stage. The Spelling Bee officially starts at 10:30 am, and at that time all 70 of us were led upstage where 70 chairs stood side by side, facing the audience. I looked at the people in front of me, and hoped I could just sit a little bit longer in my chair. I was treating this as a game.
After we introduced ourselves, the spelling bee began. The pronouncer told us that the first 200 words would be pulled from the Spell It! newspaper guide, and the rest of the words will be selected randomly from the dictionary. When a speller spelled a word wrong, he or she would hear the sound of the bell, which indicates you�re eliminated.
As the first few spellers had their words correct, everyone relaxed. However, when a small girl spelled �retrospective� wrong, the atmosphere got tenser. I sat there waiting for my turn, while trying to remember the words I studied the night before. At the turn of number 30, I stood up and walked toward the microphone. The pronouncer then said the word. It was �lunatic�. After making sure the sound of the �dreaded� bell didn�t occur in my ears, I was relieved to be through the first round. Once in a while there would be a speller that was eliminated. One boy even tripped up because he used 2 minutes and 30 seconds and still did not spell his word. That was the time limit.
When the third round ended, I was surprised to find how lucky I was, still sitting in the chair, waiting for another turn. Additionally, we got to eat a lunch provided for the spellers that were still in the competition. At that time there was only 34 people left. I felt strange having my stomach full with butterflies and sandwiches. Tension between the spellers evolved.
Round five became harder and faster. People were getting stuck with the difficult words and they were soon walking downstage. This was when the words were asked from the dictionary, not from the Spell It! guide that all of us knew, and by the sixth round, there were only 24 people left onstage.
When it was my turn, I received the word, �ballyhoo� of unknown language origin. I dug deep for the letters and pondered for a long moment. However I spelled �ballihood� and had me eliminated. I wasn�t very disappointed, knowing I don�t have to worry about my next word. It�s a success just to be a part of this Spelling Bee and I had already gotten this far. A few minutes later, I was part of the audience and enjoying the remaining 10 spellers compete. At the end, the winner was Hailey Unger from Surrey. I learned a lot of new words from this event and my English was improved. It wasn�t about winning, though, it was about learning new things and gaining courage. This has been a great opportunity for me to work myself out. I really appreciate it.
Tina Yuan
