My Shot at the Spelling Bee

Spelling has always been one of my favorite subjects. Maybe it was pre-ordained since my name Tannya is spelled with two "n's", it's always misspelled. With that said, I take a lot of pride in spelling things right and I took to it as a child. Now, I never got anywhere near the Scripps National Spelling Bee level, but I blame a bad accent on that. I grew up in Atlanta and my best shot at advancing in our spelling bee was all for naught because the woman reading the words had a horrible Southern accent and I couldn't understand a word she was saying. At risk of sounding like a poor sport... I think I was in 2nd grade or something and the word that knocked me out was "cleanser" of all things! Come to think of it, as much as I despise cleaning to this day, maybe that traumatized me. Oh well. Congratulations though to 14 year old Talmage Nakamoto of Konawaena Middle School for making it oh so close to the championship. He was among the last 16, whittled down from a field of about 300. And you can bet his losing word was not "cleanser!"