Last night’s 10-round National Spelling Bee final was a nail-biter, and an awesome one at that. There were redonkulously hard, beautifully arcane words (
schizaffin
,
palatschinken
,
Neufchâtel
). There was heartbreak (heavily-favored Sidharth Chand, last year’s runner-up, crumpled before our eyes in the second round, when he realized he spelled
apodyterium
with an
ei
). There were class clowns (Kennyi Aouad, a three-timer who
famously got the giggles
in 2007; not to mention the deadpan ninja Kyle Mou). There was even-awkwardly-former Olympian Shawn Johnson, who just won on
Dancing with the Stars
, and is apparently qualified to comment on all kinds of childhood competition.
The most compelling story of the night, though, took hold in the final rounds, when it was down to just three competitors, and we learned that two of them-Aishwarya Pastapur and Kavya Shivashankar-have been friends since nursery school. Aishwarya was easily one of the most composed, adult-like kids up there (hello, future Senator!), but when she misspelled
menhir
, she welled up and scurried off the stage. With her mother’s arms wrapped around her, she watched her old friend carry away the trophy with
Laodicean.
I was watching over the phone with my best friend-the one I mentioned in
yesterday’s post
, the one I met at a spelling bee-and we both got choked up, for both girls. Now
there’s
a follow-up story I’d like to read, once the dust settles a bit. Hey girls! My friend and I are still tight 17 years later; I have faith in you two.
(Unrelated side note:
menhir
? Doesn’t anyone read
Asterix
comics
anymore?)
