Last night, we attended an awards banquet at which the top 15 finalists were honored. Afterwards, spellers went to a farewell dance party. The party is my favorite part of Bee Week because it’s a time to celebrate and relax!
One of the most memorable moments of this year’s Bee was when Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton: An American Revolution, responded to a tweet about me with a “Go Tara!” I am a HUGE fan of Lin-Manual Miranda so this was a very exciting moment for me!
The Scripps National Spelling Bee celebrated its 90th Bee this year. To commemorate this milestone, Rookwood Pottery created a beautiful work of pottery for each speller. It features 4 books, each of which is inscribed with a different message relating to the Bee’s mission to “Inspire” students to “Discover” and “Achieve.” I will always treasure this amazing piece of pottery.
I hope you have enjoyed this journey with me! I have one year of eligibility left and I plan on working hard to make it back to the Scripps National Spelling Bee next year.
Today many spellers were able to leisurely enjoy the sights of Washington D.C. In past years, my family has gone to the National Archives, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Natural History Museum. Last year, thanks to Congressman John Yarmuth of KY, we visited the White House and enjoyed a private tour of the Capitol Building.
This year, we decided to take the water taxi from National Harbor to the National Mall. We enjoyed the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. It was a good day to relax and reflect on the past year and plan for the year ahead – there is yet so much more to learn and I’m excited to begin the journey again but first I’m going to take a much needed break!
Tonight I look forward to the Awards Banquet and the party afterwards!
The 2017 Scripps Spelling Bee champion is Ananya Vinay of Fresno, CA. Ananya was letter-perfect through 34 rounds. The winning word was marocain, a ribbed crepe fabric used in women’s clothing.
Congratulations also to Rohan Rajeev, an eighth grader from OK, who was the runner-up in this year’s Bee.
The Finals started this morning at 10:00 a.m. with 40 spellers. Rounds 4-7 were tough and the words got progressively harder. At the end of Round 7, 15 spellers remained and will continue to spell tonight in the Championship Finals. I missed my Round 6 word, “piatti,” the Italian word for cymbals. My final ranking this year is 18 – a slight improvement over last year’s 22nd.
The best part of this morning was sitting near some AWESOME people who made me smile and feel more relaxed on stage. Thank you Siyona, Shourav, Jashun, Alex, and Naysa.
Good luck to all of the remaining Finalists!
the word explorer 