Friday, September 10, 2004
In gorier detail
This issue, I will discuss in full, boring detail last week's spelling bee. Hey, it's my blog, damn it. I have every right to bore you as I so please. But in my opinion, it's a story worth sharing. Hope you think so too, guys! =)
(Taken in actual, unedited context from my own diary. Note that "JC" is the nickname I'm known by in Philippine Science High School...just so you don't go wondering "Who’s JC?" later on in this entry.)
~
September 2, 2004
And finally, something good happens after all the shit I've been through lately.
It's Humanities Week here at Philippine Science High School, and I was chosen to represent my class, I-Opal, in yesterday's spelling contest. Guess what? I WON!!! Thanks to my "coaches" Ian, Arienne and Jasper, who, despite frustrating mispronunciations of certain words they tested me on, helped me to get ready for this whole contest, I bested seven other contestants, and YEAH! Score one for section Opal!
You know, it was pretty exciting for a spelling contest, if I may say so myself.
"Unscathed." The first word for the easy round, and a real piece of cake. And I would've gotten it, too, if it weren't for the goddamn timekeeper who forgot to ring the f'ing buzzer for the go signal. Other contestants jumped the gun and got away with it, scoring a point each for their respective sections, while I who angrily complained to the host about it was told to "pay more attention next time." Motherfucker. What else could poor JC do but grin and bear it?
I breezed through the rest of the easy round, and regained advantage during the average round. There was this one word that my friend Ian asked me to spell when he was reviewing me (he mispronounced it, but that's okay): "laissez-faire." Thank God he tested me on that, because that very word was asked during the moderate round, and I was the only one to get it right (I excitedly yelled "IAN!" after they announced it as correct).
Now the difficult round...that was really something else. Most of the words were guessed wrong by every contestant (myself included, LOL). "Ukase," "zwieback," "deleterious" ---what kind of freak uses that jargon in proper sentences, anyway? Jeez. Alright, back to story. In the end, it came down to a tie between me and section Sapphire's representative. I was nervous as hell, and with good reason: this guy was good. Real good. I could tell right from the start; he stuck out like a sore thumb among all the other contestants, and I knew he'd be my biggest competition. I got especially anxious when I'd glance sideways to catch him nodding and smirking after a word was pronounced, completely confident of his knowledge of that word's spelling. It was now the big tiebreaker, the clincher round between him and me. And I felt that I didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against him. As politely as possible, I told him "good luck," although I was the one who needed it.
Like in the difficult round, we both didn't get the first few words of the clincher's five. Then we found luck with the third word, "raffish," but unfortunately, we both got it---so that doesn’t make much of a difference, does it? Mid-contest, some guy screamed "We love you, JC!" (I later found out that it was my classmate Don) from the audience. Awesome...I have fans! Haha =)
My opponent and I got the fourth word wrong, too. Finally came the last word of the clincher round. We were neck-and-neck; it was now or never for the both of us.
"Acquiesce" was the final word, a sure-shot hit for me since my roommate Arienne had just tested me on it in our dorm room on the morning of the contest. I grinned at her to signal that it was in the bag, then I looked over to my right to see my co-competitor nodding to himself. Again. Uh-oh. It looked like a second tiebreaker was in order.
The entire audience stood up and, as quietly as they could, leaned closer as we raised our boards, silent and anxious for the answer. Glancing sideways to read his spelling, I was surprised to see he'd spelled it as "acquiese.” Looked like there was going to be only one winner, after all. Question was, who was it gonna be?
Was he right? Was it I who was incorrect? We all waited with bated breath to find out.
"A-C-Q-U-I-E-S-C-E," the quizmaster read out loud, and the whole place erupted in cheers. Before I went back to my seat in the audience amidst the excited crowd of students, high-fiving and shaking hands with my newfound "fans" (LOL!), I stood up and extended my hand to my opponent, Jiano, who I readily admit, put up a good fight, and we shook hands as a show of sportsmanship.
The experience was awesome, and quite thrilling for a spelling contest. Cool, yeah.
