The Road To Spelling Fame Begins By Taking Your Shoes Off

Each year the Scripps National Spelling Bee is held near Washington DC.  As an elementary school student, I remember participating in school level contests.  Had I done well in them, I could have been on my way to DC.  I wanted to go.  I never did. 

Today I'm wondering if maybe the stakes just weren't high enough in those early years.

Elliott was running around the house this morning looking for a certificate I had cleaned out of his backpack.  His Comfy Toes certificate.  I calmed him down and assured him I had it.  I thought it was a certificate he had already cashed in.

What do you get to do with a comfy toes certificate, I asked him.

"You get to take your shoes off and just wear your socks for half a day." 

What did you do to get it?

"I got my spelling words right."

So there it is.  The answer to my spelling woes over the years.  Never once did a teacher offer to let me run around with my shoes off for acing my spelling tests.  Then again, it would have been a brave teacher who purposefully had me or any of my friends remove our shoes.  Come to think of it, I've smelled Elliott's feet - he has a brave teacher himself.  Brave, but good.