“Bilateral.”

That word stood between me and winning the Ashley County, Arkansas, spelling bee in 1995. I was in fifth grade. An eighth-grade girl from a neighboring town and I had weathered all comers up to this point, and the girl had missed her previous word, which I spelled correctly. Per the rules, I had to spell one more to win and qualify for the state bee.

One problem: I didn’t know the word. I hadn’t remembered spelling it in practice and didn’t recall having even heard it before.

I asked the moderator to repeat the word, give me the origin, definition, use it in a sentence, etc. None of it helped. I would have asked him to stand on his head and sing a song about it if I could have stalled longer.

At last, I feebly attempted to spell it. I missed, giving it one too many Ls and Ts. My opponent smiled. She knew the word and spelled it correctly. My last hope was her not knowing the next word, but it was “disobey.” I was sunk.

Two years later, I made it to the state bee and spelled three words correctly before tripping on the fourth. Despite protests from my mother, who helped me practice for the bees each year, my heart wasn’t in it in the eighth grade. We had just moved towns, puberty had hit me like a Mack truck and I thought the pursuit of “being a jock” (which largely failed) better suited my new top priority of getting a girlfriend (in which I failed entirely that year).

As Columbus-Lowndes chamber director Wilson Beck and chamber education committee chair Glenn Lautzenhiser both told me Thursday, you indeed always remember the one you missed. In Wilson’s case, because he misspelled gelatin in the fourth grade, he won’t eat Jell-O. In my case, I’ve always hated geometry.

Glenn told me he remembers his miss, too. He just wouldn’t divulge what it was.

But something else Glenn told me Thursday rings true: Almost everyone has competed in a spelling bee at some level at some point. I believe those who did it, and especially those who came back and tried again, enjoyed it.

It’s exhilarating to be on stage, it’s exciting to get a word right and even more so as the competition thins out and you remain. “I’m in the last 10. Now the last five. Now the last two!”

Even in losing, disappointing as it is, there’s a sense of accomplishment. Besides, there’s typically only one winner. Everyone else in the bee missed a word too.

No doubt that passion, mingled with a sense of community pride and responsibility, drove Columbians to save the state spelling bee when it could have quietly gone by the wayside. All we need now is for students to compete, which I ardently encourage.

Spelling bees help with literacy and vocabulary. Yes, you learn words and what they mean, but preparing for a bee helps you see new words later and figure out their meaning by their spelling or root words. You might not ever make it to the national bee, but knowing what an otorhinolaryngologist is can be important if you ever need ear tubes or your tonsils out.

In my experience, practicing for the spelling bees was as fun as competing because it was a bonding experience between my mother and me. Each year, just about every night between November and March, she drilled me on the words. Sounds like drudgery, but we also laughed a lot and learned even more — about the words and about each other.

I always chided my mother for being so intensely nervous at the spelling bees where I competed. Then my eldest, Julia, competed in the third, fourth and fifth grades — making it pretty far in the state bee that last time. No matter what level, when Julia walked to the microphone to spell, my wife thought she might have to take me to the emergency room.

The state spelling bee is worth saving, and it speaks volumes about Columbus and Lowndes County that it has leaders willing to do it. Beyond spellers, the event will need volunteers, and I encourage everyone to see how they can plug in with making this a spectacular event.

In fact, I’ll volunteer on record right now. Wilson, Glenn, you have my number. Let me know what you need and where I sign up.

Zack Plair is managing editor of The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.

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