Anyway, when the day arrived he showed so little sign of nerves that I thought perhaps that my calendar was mistaken. When I asked for a sure confirmation I got instead, "Geesh Mom, this is no big deal. I am just happy that I get to miss my first three classes today."
Later that morning, while sitting in an audience of camera clad mothers and underachieving middle-schoolers, my stomach churned with nerves for him. As he sauntered up onto the stage with 20 of his peers he waved out to his friends, lifting his chin in greeting and flashing "thumbs up" to the crowd, my nerves lessened. "Geesh Mom," I imagined his patiently disdainful voice. I relaxed.
He breezed through the first two rounds. He exuded confidence as he approached the podium for round three. "'Beautiful'....your word is 'beautiful.'" He smiled and picked up the white board marker in front of him. He wrote the word out and then, careful not to make a mistake, he read what he had written.
"Beautiful...B-E-A-U-L..." he paused, knowing that the spoken error could not be retracted and then shrugged, as if to say "Oh well." "I-F-U-L." He finished his spelling, received his judgement and sat down with the audience amongst sad sighs and hushed boos. He glanced back at me and shrugged again, mouthing "I forgot to cross my T." Then he turned back around and cheered his best friend into the winning circle, and ultimately 1st place.
He forgot to cross his T? I went over and over his explanation in my mind, until it suddenly made sense. On the white board he wrote out 'beautiful' and forgot to cross the 'T.' When he carefully read it allowed the uncrossed 'T' became an 'L' and so was born our new favorite phrase. "Have a beauliful day!!"
No moral to the story, no edict to study harder or commentary on the foolishness of using white boards...just "Have a beauliful day!"
