Aiming High/Sister's, Cousin's, and Friend's Studies

After Anna-Marie Sprenger tied for 27th at the National Spelling Bee this year, I learned that several of my friends want to win the National Spelling Bee. They first were inspired by me and were disappointed that I never saw my dream become reality, but Anna-Marie brought me joy when she was the first speller from Utah to make it to semifinals! If you are reading this, Anna-Marie, I say that this is a huge accomplishment! Advancing to semifinals sure is not easy. Thanks for encouraging my friends!

I wanted to win when Kavya Shivashankar won in 2009. She was only ten when she made it to the Championship Finals in 2006 and I was very impressed. Kavya was a great inspiration to me and I wish her sister, Vanya, the best of luck next year!

You always want to do better than before. For example, a speller ties for 14th this year, then wins next year. Sukanya Roy tied for 12th in 2009 and 20th in 2010, but won this year. It does not matter how low your ranking was, but it is all the time and effort you put into this.

My sister wants to advance to semifinals next year, then will try to make it to championship finals. She is really studying hard now. I started her with the Nintendo DS and she has made it to the Ultimate Level, but has difficulties figuring out several words. She has also been using Visual Thesaurus (visualthesaurus.com/bee) and that has been pretty helpful, even if she does not have an account. I do not have an account, either, but still love to use it.

Here are some of her favorite words:

Abib  (aveev)
caffeol
bhutatathata
Maecenas
hyperbole
eohippus
Bewusstseinslage
snipsnapsnorum
visite

I do not know how my cousin is doing, because she is either going to compete at the Daily Camera Spelling Bee in Boulder, Colorado or the Denver Post Spelling Bee in Denver, Colorado. If she does the Daily Camera Spelling Bee, she may have a good chance of making it to nationals, but at the Denver Post Spelling Bee, there is Dhivya Murugan, who tied for sixth this year, so I do not know my cousin's chances there.

I have a friend who lives in Arkansas and he is a really good speller. When he lived here in Utah, he won his school spelling bee two years in a row. He even received the word infralapsarianism and spelled it correctly. He knows a lot of music terms, too, because he plays the violin.

All of my friends are contenders to win their regional bees. I cannot wait to see the results! Good luck to all and continue spelling!