Husna's 2nd Trophy

Sometime early April 2009, Husna’s teacher called me up and informed me that Husna had been selected to represent her school for a spelling bee contest for all Nuri centers in JB. The event was to be held on 23 May 2009, at Sutera Mall, Skudai, JB.

Since the news was out, she had been practicing the 30 words given by the teacher and the way to do it – word, each letter, word. I saw the list and sometimes I tried to test her on different words. For example, the word “triangle” was on the list, so I asked her to spell “square” instead. Normally she answered “That’s not in my list”. I said “Just in case, in the finals when everyone’s equal, they’ll ask you words beyond the list. You have to try, OK”.

She was lucky since she had many trainers at home. Besides the dear mom and dad, she had her aunts – Cik Wah, Cik Odah, plus 2 cousins at home. For that 1.5 months, I guessed she must have had ample practice.

The day came. It was a Saturday, Nuri Education Center aimed to promote their centers to the public. For 4 year olds, there was a demonstration on reading skills, for 5 year olds, the spelling bee contest and for 6 year olds, the composition contest. The crowd was not too bad on that Saturday at the mall.

Husna and the 10 other contenders started their Round 1 very well indeed. Everyone got it right. Then came 2nd round, a few glitches here and there. Sorry, it was a contest with no second chance – “kalah mati” lah. Round 2 kicked out 3 kids. Round 3 another few kids, until final round – only 3 kids left. Husna from Sri Putri, a girl from Impian Emas and a boy from Bukit Indah.

Here are the words Husna had to spell:
Round 1 – EIGHT
Round 2 – CHERRY
Round 3 – TRIANGLE
Round 4 – final round, 3 words each to each participant:
TABLE
TIGER
SNAIL

She got all the words correctly spelt. Something funny happened at the final round. The boy could not figure the word very well. The tune went on like this:

Judge : Spell for me JUNIOR.
Boy : D.U.R.I.A.N.
Judge : Here me properly – JUNIOR.
Boy : D.U. – du…..long silence.

The crowd who were at first had their giggles and chuckles at the boy, soon turned into long silence of wonder.

He must have practiced only the 30 words given by the teacher. Since the word DURIAN was on the list while the word JUNIOR was not, he just could not think out of the box. See, what mommy told you are correct. You must get ready for whatever circumstances in life. Expect the unexpected. Mommy always right - hahaha..

The boy had all the 3 words wide off the mark – JUNIOR (spelt DURIAN), JUMP (spelt JAM) and one other word, he was silent until the bell was rung. The girl was the closest contender. She got 2 words right – CHAIR and FACE, while 1 word she could not figure how to spell at all – ERASER (again, it was not on the list).

Before the contest, I told Husna “It’s OK if you don’t win, but it’ll be better if you win. Just try your best”. I was trying not to get her to feel under pressure, because I was the one who felt pressured. She replied “I know all the 30 words, I can win”.

When her name was called to spell out each word in every round, I was the one who got jittery and felt the nerves all around the body. It was worst than the feeling before presenting my speech at the Toastmasters Club even! She was instead, as cool as you could never have expected. Every time she spelt the words correctly, I was the one who clapped the loudest and shouted like mad woman – “Huhu…Good Girl…”. At one point, another mom looked at me and gave me that look, to which I said “Sorry, can’t help it”.

Lesson no. 1 - nothing beats good practice. Only practice makes perfect.

Lessons no. 2 - mommy really needs to learn to control her emotions better.

Congratulations Husna, another trophy for you!