The Spelling bee buzzes!

Today, AB sent me a link to the popular sports website, ESPN's website wanting me to look at this story. I was thrilled. I love the Spelling Bee contest when I watched it once or twice back home in India. Personally, at the risk of sounding immodest, I've always been good at spellings. In fact, in Class 2, we had this whole set of hours devoted to dictation class. The teacher'd dictate, and we had to write down those words. I never made a mistake with my English spellings. I loved them too much. To date, I love spellings, and I'm good at them (No, I do not use the Spellchecker!) I was quite excited to read this story, however, suddenly, I felt bad for this kid. I felt the pressure on this kid. I researched and read more on the Internet and found out about how much these kids prepare for this contest. I swear if I had to do all that these kids did, I probably would not like English spellings so much!

Talking about pressure, kids nowadays (believe me, I'm very young, not as old as you may think! I'm just very mature :P) have unbelievable pressure. I see it in my house. My parents, thank God, have never asked me about my marks. Or my sisters for that matter. However, my sisters put a certain amount of pressure on themselves that I find stressful! Or all these kids who go for a million classes. Music, dance, some academic-related stuff. Phew! I'd have just given up on life if I had to do all this. I do agree that there are times I feel untalented, considering I dropped out of music and dance classes or basketball sessions, but atleast I did not have to get up during my summer holidays and stress over my wavering voice or unsteady steps or my poor free throws! Now, when I see kids here running for baseball practice or basketball or the Desi kids learning the Gita (as I roll my eyes - their parents think in some weird way that they are teaching their kids not to do drugs later through the Gita!) or learning Bharatanatyam, I wish I'd followed one of these hobbies though, even now, really. However, without the pressure like Samir's parents!