How I Studied 👨‍🎓 for the Scripps National Spelling Bee 🐝

[PROCTOR] The next word is niyam.
[ATMAN] Niyam. Can I get the definition?[PROCTOR] Restraint of mind or disciplined activity in accordance with resolve or rule.
[ATMAN] Niyam. Is the origin from ancient Sanskrit?[PROCTOR] Yes. The origin is indeed from Sanskrit.
[ATMAN] Niyam. Can you use it in a sentence?[PROCTOR] He vowed to give up his favorite food by taking a niyam to stop eating chocolates.
[ATMAN] No way would I do that, I love my chocolates!
[Audience Laughs][ATMAN] Niyam. N I Y A M. Niyam.
[PROCTOR] That is correct.
[Applause]

Hi, my name is Atman and I’m a 5th grader, and I am the worst speller. It gets so bad that sometimes I can’t even tell which word I was trying to write ✍️.

And my dad, as usual, forced me to take part in my school’s Scripps spelling bee 🐝 by memorizing 450 words. Why does my dad do this?

[ATMAN] Hey Harshal, how many words have you memorized for your school spelling bee?
[HARSHAL] None. I’m not doing any of that. I don’t like spelling. I thought you didn’t like it either?[ATMAN] My dad is forcing me to take part.
[HARSHAL] Dude. You need to exercise your constitutional right to freedom. This is America.[ATMAN] Yea, but I’m Canadian.
[HARSHAL] Oh man sorry to hear that. Some people are just dealt a bad hand.[ATMAN] Bruh! You don’t know the half of it.
[HARSHAL] There are actually only 50 words right?[ATMAN] Nah man. They tease you with 50 easy words, then they give you a list of 450.
[HARSHAL] That’s impossible. My brain would explode if I put that many words in it.

My brain was already exploding! Not only from the large words being stuffed into my small brain, but mainly from the fact that I don’t get to play my video games 🎮 unless I practice my words every day. I barely remember to capitalize and add periods in my sentences. There is no way I can memorize a total of 450 words. And really, what’s the point? Everything auto-corrects now anyway. And bee winners all look like nerdy Zombie robots 🤓🤖 when they win. No thank you 🙏 .

[ATMAN] Dad, spelling is a gift. I just don’t have it. I will never be good at the spelling bee!
[DAD] ’Bee’ good at the spelling bee? Really?[ATMAN] Godsake Dad, I’m not joking around.
[DAD] Look, the gift isn’t spelling. The gift is knowing how to give yourself the gift of spelling.[ATMAN] What?
[DAD] Just focus on one word at a time…

Cryptic. C R Y P T I C. Cryptic.

That’s my dad. Because he says you can give yourself a gift? Yea.. no. Dad, maybe you should be memorizing the words! And give yourself a gift 🎁!

Later that week, my dad was listening👂 to an audio book by Mark Manson and Will Smith in the car. Will Smith, you know, the Fresh Prince 👑 of Belair?

Will Smith’s father Daddio needed a large brick 🧱 wall to be built at his shop. Instead of hiring a contractor or construction 🏗 company to do it, the responsibility fell to 11-year-old Will and his 8-year-old brother Harry. They spent every day after school 🏫 and the entire summer working on the wall and it still wasn’t done.

[WILL and HARRY] Why’d we have to build a wall for, anyway? This is impossible. It’s never gonna get done.[DADDIO] Stop thinking about the damn wall! There is no wall. There are only bricks. Your job is to lay this brick perfectly. Then move on to the next brick. Then lay that brick perfectly. Then the next one.

After nearly a year of agonizingly laying bricks 🧱, Will and Harry mixed the mortar for the last time and placed the final brick. They then joined their father who was watching his sons finish up their family’s new wall.

He only said one thing:

[DADDIO] Now, don’t y’all ever tell me there’s something you can’t do.

Then Daddio left and went back to work. This one lesson shaped the way Will Smith would deal with any obstacles or failures in life. When something or someone knocked him down, he now had the Will to get back up and lay another brick 🧱 .

[DAD] I want you to have this.
[ATMAN] You want me to build a brick wall after school with a brother I don’t have?[DAD] Spell obtuse.
[ATMAN] Hmm… Obtuse. Can you use it in a sentence?[DAD] The kid was deliberately obtuse and not able to understand what was obviously simple.
[ATMAN] Obtuse. O B T U S... oh... I see what you did there.

My dad’s process for incentivizing spelling practice provides me with 15 minutes of screen time for every 100 words I try to spell. Any word I get wrong, he doubles up on the punishment and makes me write ✍️ it out 10 times. His own little personal criminal justice system designed to rehabilitate my poor spelling and curb laziness!

[ATMAN] What if I did 200 words instead of 100? Can I get double the screen time?
[DAD] Nope.[ATMAN] Why not? It’s double the words.
[DAD] But it’s not the agreement. Once you made an agreement with yourself, you can’t break it.[ATMAN] But I didn't want to do this. You just took away my screen time if I didn't do it.
[DAD] Spell coerced.[ATMAN] Coerced. C O E R C E D. Coerced.
[DAD] A coerced agreement with yourself, is still an agreement. It’s for your own good.

Every kid 👦 knows that this means the parent has no idea 🤷‍♂️ how to explain their position so they revert to the classic chess move that hasn’t failed parents for generations… It's for your own good.

Don’t tell him I said this, but he is fair. After I finished my first round, I was about to go back and practice again (because I had forgotten about the screen time) and my dad stopped 🛑 me.

[DAD] Sorry, you have to play now. That was the agreement.

I know it sounds silly, but that’s the part that made the next fifteen minutes so much better than any other. I had earned it. And I was ready to earn it again.

Here’s what happened over the next 7 rounds of practice:

Round 1: I got 40 words wrong
Round 2: This time only 24 words wrong
Round 3: 16 words wrong
Round 4: 7 words wrong
Round 5: 3 words
Round 6: 1
Round 7: Perfect

In case you don’t feel the emotion I felt in round 7, let me spell it out for you:

“A M A Z I N G”

I felt amazing 😃. I was on top of the world 🌎!

A niyam is defined as a restraint of mind or disciplined activity in accordance with resolve or rule. I always thought of niyams were about taking away something.

Typically kids might take a niyam to not watch TV 📺 or give up their favorite food 🥘 or give up something else they really like. And a niyam can also be to read 📙 before you go to bed or listen 🎧 to something educational or positive.

But these niyams are really an agreement to receive a gift 🎁. Definitely not one you would want to get on your birthday 🎂. But a gift that grows over time 🕓. And if you stick with it, you might find out that you can do something you thought you could never do or be someone you could never bee 🐝.

Atman Patel, Maryland
Student, 5th Grade