COOL AS A CUCUMBER IN A BOWL OF HOT SAUCE: Today is the last day — the day before the real, honest-to-goodness hardcore spelling starts. Sure, the preliminaries have been going on, but the guts of what the Bee is all about start tomorrow morning.
The schedule is different now than it was 25 years ago, when I competed. The kids still attend a welcome barbecue. I remember mine being great fun, despite an abrupt ending when a freak storm blew through and the staff herded us onto buses for the trip back to DC. We also had a day of sightseeing, where I visited the Vietnam Memorial for the first time and we had a short Rose Garden audience with then-President Reagan; our parents were annoyed that they had to wait in the buses while we hobnobbed with him. I also remember a bunch of fun at the hotel in the evenings hanging out with the other contestants, eating, playing cards, and signing the ever-present autograph books.
The schedule for this year's kids doesn't specify any activities for today. I'm guessing some kids will stay in their rooms studying, and some will take advantage of the beautiful weather to get out and see some of the myriad of sights that DC has to offer.
I don't remember a lot of angst or last-minute cramming, but the Bee has become much bigger and much more competitive over the last two and a half decades. Fewer than 140 spellers competed in 1983, and there was a genuine spirit of excitement and support for the other spellers among us. Sure, we all wanted to win, and sure, we all experienced disappointment, sadness and shock when the bell finally rang (well, all except for current judge Blake Giddens, who won on "Purim"), but I made many friends with whom I kept in touch for years afterward.
It's hard to know how much of that is still happening. I hope that it is. I also hope that the kids take today, and the rest of the time left in Bee Week, to really soak in the atmosphere and the experience. It should be something that they remember fondly for the rest of their lives.
I'm sure we'll see some last-minute butterflies tomorrow as the kids spell to a full ballroom on national TV. I was a wreck when I got up to spell my practice word, "ghost." After that, though, the lights and cameras faded away and it was just about us kids. Just a bunch of kids who happen to be really, really good at spelling.
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