Fun on the job

Being an intern at a newspaper comes with a certain number of quirks in the job. For example, you get the articles that don't fall under anyone else's responsibility - which means you could be writing an article about local produce and one about a biker in the same day. You are also fair game for anything the other reporters are too busy to do, or don't want to do - like typing in addresses or calling all the school districts to check enrollment.

By far the quirkiest thing I've done for the News-Journal so far was participating in the corporate spelling bee. The East Texas Literacy Council hosts a corporate spelling bee every year as a fundraiser for their programs. Each organization is allowed a three-member team and the spellers rotate spelling the words. If one speller misses a word, the whole team is out.

I got a place on the team by sheer providence. I was sitting at a borrowed desk (as usual, since the interns do not have assigned desks) when Ana Walker, our editor, was informed that one of their spellers was sick. She looked around and saw me sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs.

"Let's use one of our interns," she suggested.

I glanced around to make sure there were no other interns in her line of sight.

"Rachel, are you a good speller?" Ana asked the question, but I could tell she wasn't really concerned with the answer.

I thought back...I love reading, am an English major, and took a spelling placement test in 6th grade that placed me at a college freshman level...

"Fairly good," I admitted.

"Okay, you're on the team."

With that, I was officially a member of the Longview News-Journal "Bee for Literacy" team.

That was yesterday. The bee was today, June 6. Everyone had been provided a study guide back in April, but I didn't get my hands on it until this morning. I spent my morning pouring over words like acromegalic and heterochromatic and kafkaesque. Basically, by the time we left for the bee, I was in fighting mode and sure that I would flop miserably.

Dayna, my teammate, pushed me in front of a TV camera. She was asked to speak, and she grabbed me and suggested me. Well, since I had to do it, I decided to put on a confident front. As I started talking about how as journalists we work with words and love them, I decided that we had every right to be confident. I even felt comfortable bragging a little about being an English major and my spelling aptitude. As far as I was concerned, we had just as good of a chance of winning as any of the other teams.

My first word was "anvil." For the first three rounds, the words were so easy that I couldn't believe we lost a team. With 15 teams in the competition and Neiman Marcus out on round 3, I was certain we had a fighting chance. My two teammates weren't so confident, but I assured them that if I knew the word, I would spell it to them. I had to on two occasions, but they did a good job. I was very proud of them.

My second word was "etymology." Dayna and Jimmy leaned in to help me, but I stood up and rattled it off before they had a chance. For pete's sake, if I don't know how to spell "the study of words," I'm in the wrong major. I sat back down and Jimmy leaned over and said, "That's it. You sold it. I'm homeschooling my kids."

Unfortunately, our luck didn't hold. After narrowly surviving Dayna's word "stethoscope" and making it to the top three, I messed up. Yes, you may all blame me for ruining the bee for the News-Journal. My word was "narcissistic." I hesitated and considered using our "mulligan," which meant we could ask for a different word. The only other team to use their's had exchanged "mystique" for "hearth," and it was very tempting. But no, I rattled the word off under my breath and was sure I had it. "N-a-r-c-i-s-s-i-s-t-i-c."

The scorekeeper was warning us to watch our time, so I stood up and blurted, "Narcissistic, n-a-r-" My mouth was dry, so I swallowed and continued, "i-s-s-i-s-t-i-c."

Yep, I forgot to say the "c." One little letter threw our hopes for the trophy right out the window. Yes, it was confident, good-speller Rachel who messed up, while Dayna and Jimmy were worried spitless and never missed a beat. Ah well, pride goes before destruction, and all that.

On a more positive note, I did appreciate the irony in the fact that I told the TV crew that I was sure we would win, and the word that tripped me up was narcissistic. Some sick part of me hopes that the news crew will use that footage - it would be great. If I was covering the story, I would.

Stay tuned throughout the summer for more updates on just how crazy being an intern can be. I'm currently looking forward to June 23, when the five newsroom interns are judging the "Feed Our Interns Cobbler Contest."

You never stop learning, and today I learned that even if you think you are a ogod sepllre, uyo nca awlays iporvme.