BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Imagine being 11 years old and standing up on a stage, in front of a crowd and a microphone, with the pressure of having to correctly spell a challenging word.
Now, imagine yourself being that age and being the best word-speller in northwest Ohio, earning the right to go to Washington, D.C. to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
That is a reality for Otsego Junior High School sixth grader Kendall Mehl, who earned the honors after winning the Northwest Ohio Regional Spelling Bee on March 9.
"We're really proud, we're really excited for her," said Jessica Mehl, Kendall Mehl's mother. "She's been working at this and putting in time. She loves to read and so spelling and the spelling bee were just kind of a natural fit for her. So we are really excited to see her excel at something she loves."
Kendall Mehl won the regional bee by spelling the word "declamatory" correctly. With that, she now gets to not only be one of over 200 competitors in the national bee, but also be the first student ever to represent Otsego Local Schools in the bee.
"It's very interesting, very cool, sort of very accomplished. I'm the first (from Otsego)," Kendall Mehl said. "That's crazy."
To prepare for spelling bees, Kendall Mehl uses a routine that involves at least one hour of daily practice a day, working on approximately 20 to 30 words.
"They (Kendall Mehl's parents) give me the list and assign me like a letter or so, like around 20 words," Kendall Mehl said. "I would take 30 minutes or so to study all of them, memorize all of them, and then I'd have them quiz me on them and once we were done with that, we would mark what I got wrong and what I got right so we could go back through at the end."
For Kendall Mehl though, it's something she loves to do, and with her love for reading, she's ready for the big stage.
"We're proud of her no matter what happens," Andy Mehl, Kendall Mehl's father, said. "But we're putting in the time and effort that's needed to be ready and do her best."
The competition begins May 26 and a full schedule will be available on the Scripps National Spelling Bee website at this link.
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