It's all worth it: Ellis eighth-grader going national after recent Spelling Bee win

Yahoo

20-02-2025

Feb. 19—There was a moment Tuesday during the Final Spelling Bee at the Wood Lake Meeting Center in Rochester when Austin student Carter Peterson's nerves were overwritten by joy.
"When the girl I was going against got that word wrong, when it was just us two, I basically knew that I had won the competition, because I had memorized the words down pat," Peterson said Wednesday, still relishing the win a day after the event. "These words, I knew them like the back of my hand so I knew I was going to win when she got the word wrong."
Peterson, an eighth-grader at Ellis Middle School, won Tuesday's Spelling Bee on the word "judicious" and will now go on and represent the area at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. on May 26-31, with the finals slated to take place on May 29.
Peterson's recollection of the final moments of his win Tuesday isn't bragging, but rather the next step of a journey that has included hours of practice and spelling going as far back as first grade.
"It felt amazing knowing that I worked so hard and it finally turned out the way I wanted it to," Peterson said.
It also wasn't an easy win. Peterson said he felt the nerves of competing in this final round before he even got Rochester.
"I had some doubt in myself that I would be able to do it, but you know I tried to keep faith in myself," he said. "I ended up doing it."
Something of an old hat in the spelling game, Peterson has spent countless hours of practice working and memorizing the words that he might be facing.
This is a challenge in and of itself, but it's made even more so knowing that of the thousands of words he works through, only few of those words will be used. And it's only going to get more challenging at the national level.
"It can be very frustrating at times knowing you have to spend all of that time for just a few words because you don't know what you are going to get," Peterson said. "It all ends up being worth it in the end."
Peterson said he will now take some time off just to get away from the spelling game for a while before he jumps back into it in preparation for the live-televised event in May.
To do that he uses the Word Club app that provides different levels of words depending on a grade level.
But he's not doing this alone as Peterson has come to depend on family to help him through, including a rather boisterous fan section being in attendance Tuesday.
"I felt like I had done it," Peterson said after spelling "judicious," adding with a grin: "My grandma, like screamed."
He has also fallen back on the support of his mother, Breanna Peterson, who has been with him every step of the way, even during the challenging moments.
"I really owe a lot of it to my mom, because she has sat there as I get frustrated and I don't want to study anymore because I'm exhausted," Peterson said. "One thing she told me when I was having a hard time was, 'just close your eyes and imagine that moment when you win.' That really pushed me to want to win."
Peterson doesn't have to imagine anymore now that he's cleared this latest hurdle and looks even further forward, but he's not taking the opportunity for granted either. He will take a realistic view of things with him to the nation's capitol and all that entails, which he hopes includes a stop at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
"I'm nervous already, but I'm also very excited because I'm excited for the competition. Excited for the experience being in Washington, D.C.," he said. "Even if I do get out, it would be such an honor just to get to be there. One day I'll tell my kids you can do anything if you put your mind to it."
While the experience up until this point as well as the experience before him is exciting and important, there is also one added benefit that makes it all worthwhile.
"It's the last week of school so I get to skip the whole last week of school," he said.
This year marks 100 years of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Aside from Peterson, fellow Austin eighth-grader Giselle Hinks had advanced to Tuesday's Spelling Bee along with Hollandale Christian sixth-grader Jessica Bird.