Dearest Fellow Spellers, Good evening to you all! I would like to convey to you all of my feelings about this week – these were some of the best days that I’ve ever experienced, and these memories will always stay with me. First, thank you Dad for all that you have done for me. You have been a fantastic coach, and if it weren’t for you and your lengthy word lists that you spent hours making, I would definitely not be up here. Thank you Amma and Sujan for encouraging me the whole time I was studying up for the Bee – you helped me greatly by keeping me on task and not getting me distracted.
And thank you to my grandparents for coming all the way from India just to see me spell. Just having you here lightened my experience by so much. Also, thank you to my friends and classmates back home in San Diego for supporting me. This year was in fact only the second year that my school participated in the Spelling Bee. On my request, my English teacher had brought the bee to my school, and I would not be here without my teacher or principal. There are so many others that have helped me along this road of spelling, in fact too many to name. I extend my deepest gratitude to each and every one that has made this moment possible for me.
I am so delighted to win this year’s title. It is such a great honor to have. I had never thought that I would be the one to stand up here in front of you all, since there are so many excellent spellers in this room. This was such a great experience that shall never be forgotten. I’ve made so many new friends that I will keep in touch with, and I have learned many life lessons during this endeavor. I’ve learned that no matter what happens, you should never give up your goals because of a small pitfall, because you never know when you will come across serendipity or a stroke of luck in the road ahead of you.
If I had given up, I would never have made it this far. Don’t be disheartened for not doing as well as you maybe thought, because even coming to D. C to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which even might as well be called International Spelling Bee, is an epic feat within itself. You are the few spellers among 11 million kids around the world that participated in the spelling bee. You have all the reasons to pat yourself on the back! If you still can participate next year, I recommend it 100%. After last year, I had always thought to myself, “ Why am I putting my self through the same thing over again?
Don’t I want to do something else? ” Now I know the answer. It’s not for glory or fame or the trophy. There’s a deeper reason that each and every one of us is here for. Each of us has something in common, and that thing is the love that we have for words. It is so strong that we could not live without reading or writing or “ spelling”. We look up every word that we come across, and we spend hours sprawled across the dictionary. If someone was to ask any one of us what we think is the greatest invention ever, we would all reply, “ the written word”. Thank you all again, and good night!
