The first regional bee for 2018 was in Belmont County, Ohio. Linh Le, an eighth grader from St. Clairsville Middle School, correctly spelled "sinister" and "lenient" to win the trophy and prizes including a trip to the national finals in the Washington D.C. area. Thanks to all the local sponsors: The Times Leader, Belmont Savings Bank, Goldberg, Persky & White, East Central Ohio Educational Service Center, Airport Limousine Service and AAA Auto Club.

Photo credit: Shelley Hanson/The Times Leader

I wan out of my sight!!!

I am not an amazing speller like some of you all out there, but I just wanted to share my story about the 3rd grade classroom bee. I remember how nervous I was and the thumping of my heart, my first word was destiny and to me that was a sign that I was meant to win, I watched my friends get out on words like flexible and screaming in my head to them about how it was an I not an A. Eventually I did win just as I had predicted. I was very happy.

My dream began with an impromptu classroom spelling bee, but it grew with the help of a movie. This movie was Akeelah and the Bee. While this movie is a fictional docudrama, it inspired me to have a goal in my spelling bee journey and to believe that anything is possible. After watching this movie, I believed in my dream of making it to the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

I was one of the eight spellers at my school, PS99's, spelling bee. The first few rounds were easy, and nobody was knocked out. Then the competition started for the top 3 spots when someone was knocked out on "teacher". During the next few rounds the other 4 struck out, and I was returning over and over again. Then the race for school champion was on! I came in second with "mahogany", and someone else took the ranking of "school champion" with "avalanche". I was so happy, I was advancing to the 2018 Queens Borough-wide spelling bee.