Elias Kondolios (Speller 198) was nervous before he took the preliminary exam. But his mom might have been more nervous.
"I'm always nervous," Zenovia Kondolios said. "Did I help him prepare enough? I never feel like I did."
Elias, an eighth grader from Warren, Ohio, said he tries to appear more confident than he really is.
"It makes your mind a little bit more clear," he said.
"Uncertainty is a bad thing for the Spelling Bee. If you think you know, but you're not sure, it throws off your answer. You get rid of a lot of uncertainty by practicing."
Elias has been practicing. But the Bee is hard, he said, because "everything is game."
Still, Elias was ecstatic to come here. His principal is coming from Ohio Wednesday to watch him spell on stage. And so far, he's having a great time.
"There are 280 people who are pretty similar to you, then you get to meet them, then you get to compete against them," he said. "All of it's exciting."
