One of the things I look most forward to when I’m finally old enough to be a proud member of the AARP is to train long and hard and participate in the AARP’s annual National Spelling Bee.
I love letters. I love putting letters together. I love what happens when I put letters together. In other words I love words.
And so it is with great joy, and a tear in my left eye, that I celebrate Michael Petrina, the 64-year-old from Arlington, VA who won this year’s AAARP National Spelling Bee. Petrina is a spelling-man, a man who loves to spell; hopefully each word correctly.
Interestingly, Petrina first won his state’s national spelling bee as a prepubescent thirteen year old, but lost in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Undaunted he never extinguished his inner fire to spell, and 51 years later he achieved his momentous goal.
The word that made him the champ? Woad. It’s a yellow flowered European plant of the cabbage family whose leaves produce a blue dye.
I hope that in addition to his $500 cash prize, trophy and dictionary kit he received a bouquet of woad.
Congratulations Mr. Petrina.
I love letters. I love putting letters together. I love what happens when I put letters together. In other words I love words. And so it is with great joy, and a tear in my left eye, that I celebrate Michael Petrina, the 64-year-old from Arlington, VA who won this year’s AAARP National Spelling Bee. Petrina is a spelling-man, a man who loves to spell; hopefully each word correctly.
Interestingly, Petrina first won his state’s national spelling bee as a prepubescent thirteen year old, but lost in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Undaunted he never extinguished his inner fire to spell, and 51 years later he achieved his momentous goal.
The word that made him the champ? Woad. It’s a yellow flowered European plant of the cabbage family whose leaves produce a blue dye.
I hope that in addition to his $500 cash prize, trophy and dictionary kit he received a bouquet of woad. Congratulations Mr. Petrina.
Comments