I credit the National Spelling Bee for having a profound impact on the direction my life has taken over the last 17 years. I was a speller in the 2000 National Spelling Bee--Speller #73, sponsored by the Zionsville (IN) Times-Sentinel. I was the youngest speller in the Bee that year at 9 years old (which is nearing ancient compared to this year's youngest speller!). My opportunity to participate in the Bee coincided with some of my most formative developmental years, times in which I really started to understand that the world was broader than the confines of my small community. While my time spelling on stage in Washington was short (I missed my first word--and will never forget how to spell "kabuki" again), getting to spend a week in Washington, D.C., instilled a passion in me to learn about both what had happened and what was presently happening in our nation's capital. I had the opportunity to see a sitting president speak on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, to tour Mount Vernon, and to explore a city that quickly became my favorite place in the entire country. My interests in history, politics, news, and ultimately law grew out of that week, leading me to study history in college and then attend the nation's oldest law school, William & Mary, in large part due to its proximity to Washington, D.C. I'm now an attorney in the Commonwealth of Virginia (hoping to shortly wind up in or near Washington itself), for which I truly believe the starting point was my week as a contestant in the National Spelling Bee seventeen years ago.