Back home in Jamaica, I have a very specific claim to fame: I'm the spelling bee girl. The funny part is that I haven't competed in one in almost eight years. I competed in the Jamaica National Spelling Bee four times between the ages of eight and twelve. By my final competition, I had finished as Jamaica's champion girl and second-place national finisher, earning the opportunity to represent Jamaica at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, where I tied for 51st place out of more than 550 competitors from around the world. Naturally, I assumed that would be the end of my spelling bee era. It wasn't. Every year, parish champions were interviewed before the national competition. My interview was filmed at school with my mom and coach, then aired on television leading up to the competition. At the time, it just felt like another part of the experience. I never imagined that, years later, those interviews would still be following me around. Now I'm nineteen and studying Computer Science at Talladega College as an international student from Jamaica. These days, I spend more time debugging code than memorizing vocabulary lists. Yet every so often, I'll post a picture on Instagram, and someone will comment, "Wait... are you the spelling bee girl?" It makes me laugh every single time. No one is making fun of me. Or at least, I'd hope not. If anything, people seem genuinely excited that they recognized me. Somehow, after all these years, that has become the thing people remember me for. It's a strangely specific kind of legacy, and I've decided I like it. Looking back, I can admit that I was probably a slightly unusual child. I started practicing for spelling bees when I was six years old, so by the time I was competing, studying words felt completely normal to me. While my friends were outside playing during lunch break in primary school, I was often sitting with a list of spelling words, trying to memorize one more before the bell rang. Looking back now, I sometimes wonder whether they thought I was a little odd. The truth is, they probably weren't wrong. But I genuinely loved it. I loved discovering words I'd never heard before, learning where they came from, and coming back each year to see how much I could improve. That curiosity never really left. Today, instead of learning obscure vocabulary, I'm learning programming languages and solving problems through computer science. The challenge looks different, but the excitement of learning something difficult feels exactly the same. So yes, I'm still "the spelling bee girl." Eight years later, every unexpected Instagram comment reminds me that somewhere out there, people still remember the little girl who spent her lunch breaks studying spelling words instead of playing outside. There are certainly worse things to be remembered for. Honestly, I think it's kind of wonderful.