I was waiting as words flew past other people. Greta Warner, a speller from Canada, misspelled “laconism” when she took her turn two turns before mine. Then, all of a sudden, it was my time again. For the second time, two paths divulged from here: the one of success and the one of failure, and I certainly wasn’t indecisive about which path I wanted to take. I walked up to the microphone, said a shy “hi” to Dr. Bailly, and then it was time for my word to be given. “Eutrophic.” Good, I thought. I know this word well. After asking all the appropriate questions in the appropriate order, I began to spell. “Eutrophic. E-U-T-R-O-P-H-I-C. Eutrophic.” “Correct.” I returned to my seat yet again to wait out the remainder of the spellers in the round. At the end of my half of the round, we returned to the hotel room…show more content… After the photos were taken, Paul Loeffler, the ESPN commentator for the Bee, went up to the speller’s microphone with a Microsoft Surface tablet that appeared to have a list on it. After talking for a minute about Microsoft (they sponsored the Bee along with Scripps), Paul began listing spellers. For a while I just listened. Vanya Shivashankar was announced, which was no big surprise, as it was her fifth year at the Bee, and she was a favorite to win. I had heard that Vanya had won a reality TV show called “Child Genius” a few months ago, so her talent for intellect was not small. Gokul Venkatachalam, another favorite to win, was named a semifinalist. As was Cooper Komatsu, the boy I had talked to before the Preliminaries Test. Another member of the top 49, as it had just been said, was Victor Sutton (“numero uno,” said the ESPN commentator.) Paul Loeffler’s mouth opened again to announce yet another competitor. My heart and thoughts were racing. Then I heard the sound waves escaping his