Experience...

Well... we prepared for weeks.  Excitement and nervousness filled the car as Jayden and I drove to his first spelling bee.  He was quite confident and even though some words still gave him trouble, he was ready!  They really didn't give us any information except where to be and when.  The kids were just given a list of words to study with the instructions that the judges would not ONLY pick from those words.  It was just a sampling. Beyond that we had NO idea what to expect.  In retrospect it would have been great to know ahead of time exactly what would be expected of the kids.

We got Jayden signed in and went to his assigned room.  He didn't know anyone there so it was a tension filled few minutes as the parents sat in the back of the room and the bee'ers in the front.  The moderator barely went over the procedure and we got started.  The first 2 rounds went spectacularly.  Easy words for Jayden and he seemed cool and collected as he spelled his word and took his place at the rear of the line.  Then round 3 happened.

Jayden was given his word and he proceeded to spell it... without saying it first.  He spelled it correctly and said the word at the end... then the moderator just stood there.  Poor Jayden knew something had gone wrong, but he just didn't know what.  Finally, the moderator told him he forgot to say the word first.  He was out.  The first one.  It was sad on all accounts!

I think he actually handled it better than I did!  He was visibly shaken, but he was able to pull himself together.  We talked about what happened and he didn't even realize he didn't say the word.  Then he turned to me and said, "Well, I got experience.  Dad says experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.  I sure got experience today!"

He's a good sport.  I'm proud of him for trying something new... something uncomfortable.  For coming up way short of what we know he's capable of... and taking it all with grace.  Yes, he was disappointed, but he also got a great lesson in the fact that things don't always go the way we think (or hope) they will.  When he prayed last night he thanked God that he was able to try the bee even though he didn't win.  He said he had fun.  That was important.  He said he wants to try again next year.  One more year to redeem himself... the bee goes to 5th grade.