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mokenamessenger.com Sound Off
the Mokena Messenger | January 19, 2017 | 17
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1. Leading with principle: Former North
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3. New Lenox police arrest men who allegedly
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4. Residents, owner of prospective Mokena
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5. Standout Student: Ryan Kraft, Mokena
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From the editor
Beating the bee: Memories
from a former stellar speller
Tim Carroll
tim@mokenamessenger.com
That is the
“Orchestra.”
word I misspelled
in my third-grade
spelling bee.
The details are a little
hazy. I’m not 100 percent
certain it was third grade,
for instance, and I do not
remember for sure whether
I left the H off or spelled
it with a K or what, but I
remember — with shame to
this day — that it was the
word I didn’t spell correctly
and that knocked me out of
that spelling bee.
The advice I want to give
the students who competed
in the Mokena Junior High
School geography bee
(Page 5) this past Friday,
Jan. 13, is that they should
avoid being like me.
Not necessarily in messing
up an answer, because
that’s just going to happen
sometimes, whether you
like it or not.
You should do your best
to be unlike me more by
not allowing that memory
or mistake to hang over
you — especially for, in my
case, some 15-plus years.
I’ve always been a deep
thinker. Not deep enough to
spell “orchestra” properly,
mind you, but a deep
thinker nonetheless, and
usually at the wrong times.
I often find myself pondering
different ways I could
have handled situations so
they would have turned out
more favorably.
That can be a good thing,
because it can help me
make better decisions the
next time a similar situation
arises.
But it can also be a
horrible thing, because I
sometimes can’t seem to
keep myself from dwelling
on the past and thinking
of how things could have
been.
For the spelling bee
example, I was a pretty
good student, if I may say
so myself. I went to a very
small grammar school, so I
certainly felt that I was the
favorite to win that spelling
bee every year we had
it. And that made me put a
little too much pressure on
myself, which I know now
was an error.
And yet, I continue to
make that error. I played
men’s 16-inch softball
roughly five days a week
this past summer, which
should have been great.
Except I was in a slump for
most of the summer at the
plate.
Eventually, I pretty much
broke out of the slump and
wound up reaching base
consistently and driving in
some big runs. But I still
wasn’t having as much
fun as I should have been,
because I didn’t expect
myself just to reach base;
I wanted to lead the league
and the team in doubles,
triples, home runs, RBI,
walks, on-base percentage,
OPS+, WAR, defensive
runs saved, GUAGI,
YONDO, SWEELEP and
ManCot.
(Yes, the last four are
made up, I’m pretty sure,
and most of the others
aren’t kept track of in 16-
inch softball.)
But I was able to have
a fair amount of fun. So, I
was able to overcome, for
the most part, what would
have more or less crippled
my performance and ability
to have fun as a younger
person.
If you’re a student who
didn’t perform the way you
desired in the geography
bee, this may not sound like
a tale of triumph. It isn’t.
Not completely, not yet.
But I hope that, as I continue
to get older and have
more and more positive
and negative experiences, I
will be able to completely
get over my expectations
for myself and have fun no
matter what.
I hope that all you students
had a ton of fun during
the geography bee, and
none of you are like me in
not being able to get over
the expectations you set
for yourself. But I suspect
there’s at least one or two
who may still be struggling
with it, and this next part is
for you.
Progress is good, and
I’ve made some. If you’re
a student who is feeling
down because of your
performance in the bee, you
will make progress, too.
It may not come quickly
enough for your liking —
Lord knows mine came
about as slowly as frozen
molasses and continues to
move at a sub-glacial pace
— but it will come.
Aaron Rodgers told
Packers fans (I’m not one,
but I respect the hell out of
him as a player) to R-E-L-
A-X back in 2014 after the
Packers started 1-2.
It’s not exactly that easy,
at least not for me. It takes
a little more than spelling
a word to actually perform
the action.
But, students like me, it
will get better, especially if
you commit this spelling to
memory:
O-R-C-H-E-S-T-R-A
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the thoughts of the company
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encourages readers to write
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