Ugh, I did it again! I went another week without posting a new blog post! I'm so, so, so sorry. I'll just end the apologies here and move-on with the story.
Last Wednesday, I attended the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland (why they couldn't hold it somewhere Metro-accessible, I'll never know). Eric, my hero, drove me to National Harbor before 6:00 AM. When I arrived at 6:30 AM, neither the ballroom nor the media table were open, so I took a little stroll around the convention center, and this is what I saw from the window:
Not too shabby. I wish I had had some time to explore National Harbor, maybe take a spin on the new wheel, but every second was spent focused on my roll as a correspondent for The Repository newspaper in Canton, Ohio. I walked back to the spelling bee area to see if the media table had opened, and this is what I saw:
You know how Academy Award nominees always say, "It was such an honor just to be nominated"? Well, I know how they feel. I was honored just to be there as a journalist. I like seeing the world through the eyes of a journalist. I like doing a thing, then coming home and talking/writing about the thing. I think that being a journalist makes me more present and in-the-moment. I go to more events and search for more experiences when I know that I'm going to report on it to others afterwards. I like that. I like leading the life of a storyteller.
Back to the spelling bee. I checked-in with the media table as soon as they opened, and I staked out my seat at the "media tables," right near the front of the spelling bee stage. I took out my laptop, plugged it into the outlet, and connected to the WiFi. I connected my iPad and iPhone to the WiFi. I was ready to do some reporting... a full hour before the spelling bee even began ;-)
The spelling bee began at 8:00 AM sharp. The first group of students were in place on the stage, the lights were shining, and the cameras were rolling. About 40 students in a row all spelled their words correctly before any students made an error and were eliminated. The student I was reporting on was the 185th student speller of the day, and he got his first word right!
By the way, I'm not going to re-cap the whole spelling bee here. If you want to know how my student did at the spelling bee, you can read my full story at The Repository's website, here: Area speller eliminated in second round of national bee.
The day was long. 281 spellers all came to the microphone in the morning for their turn to compete. Then there was an hour-long lunch break. I spent most of that time at the press conference, with the official bee "pronouncer", as well as the director of the spelling bee. I was wooed to the press conference by the promise of free lunch (a sack lunch consisting of a turkey sandwich, apple, bag of chips, chocolate chip cookie, and cup of pasta salad). I tried to think of a provocative-yet-intelligent question to ask, but I couldn't think of one. So I just wrote-down what other people said.
One journalist asked why all the winners of the past 6 years had all been of Southern Asian decent. The director of the bee couldn't give a scientific reason for this, but she praised the diversity of the student spellers. The students came from a wide variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds. As an audience member, the spellers on stage looked like an even mix of White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic backgrounds. The students on that stage were a visual representation of what is best about this country.
The student that I was reporting on spelled his first word correctly, and therefore moved-on to the second round of competition in the afternoon. Unfortunately, he spelled his second word incorrectly. So he was out of the competition.
After the second round of spelling, an announcer from ESPN announced which 50 (or so) students would be moving-on to the semifinal rounds the next day. After all the spellers were announced, I left my seat and met-up with the student I was reporting on, and his parents. The speller was bummed, and clearly disappointed in himself for getting his word wrong, but his parents were gushing with pride.
Once I had my quotes from them, I returned to my seat at the ballroom and spent the next hour writing the full story for the newspaper. I was done at around 6:45 PM. At which point, my hero, Eric, offered to drive all the way back out to National Harbor to pick me up at take me home. What a sweetie.
So how did I do on my first freelance job as a Washington correspondent? I honestly think I kinda sucked. While I am happy with the final article that I wrote, I'm disappointed in myself for not really understanding what my editor meant by, "Send me web updates." I thought those "web updates" were just supposed to be Twitter-length sentences. They weren't. He wanted me to write short articles for the web after each time my student went up to the microphone for his word. My "web updates" were kinda crap, and my editor had to fix my mistakes.
But you know, I should be proud of myself for just taking a chance and offering to write the article at all. I didn't 100% know what I was getting myself into, but I took a leap of faith that I could do it anyway. And just like all those kids who didn't make it to final round of the spelling bee, I should be proud of myself for just getting there. We should all learn from those brave young spellers. We should all be striving for something great, even if we don't get all the way there. There is beauty in the trying.
Love and light to all of you.
~Leila
P.S. If you've never watched all 10 episodes of The Sherman House Webisodes before, well, you really should start watching them today (for free!) at www.shwebisodes.com.
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