Typing Pal

The middle of March Grace brought home a paper inviting her to participate in the Nebo Keyboarding Competition on April 18th. She was invited since she was in the top 10% of the district. The competition was the type where you come "register" (i.e. show up early) and then wait 45 min for and between multiple rounds of elimination.
We were proud and excited for Grace, but it was one of those things I kinda wished she'd decide she didn't want to do.
SHe had been diligient about practicing her typing, and was actually pretty excited and nervous about the competition. She soon decided she wanted to go, and kept bringing up her nervousness. So we made a deal she would get a reward if she didn't dwell on her nervousness (i.e. talk about it all the time). She did great preparing, spending time most days on typing pal, telling us all about what level, speed, errors, and scores she got, and showing us her gold stars online. She was persistent and committed.
The night arrived, and she was really nervous as we pulled up at 4:30pm, got her name on a sticker and waited on the bleachers in the loud gym.

We did see some friends who sat by us, which made the whole experience way better. Grace took the gum I offered, and they went out to their first round of typing. When they got back she seemed a bit more settled, like she knew what to expect, and I traded spots with RD to go take care of Renée. Grace kept passing rounds, so they had to stick around forever, but I got a text around 8:30 pm saying they were still there waiting to hear the final winners. The  kids got treats after every round, which made it more fun for her; fruit snacks, cookies, candy bar etc. There are just under 4,000 fourth-graders in our district, and my friend said the winners in fifth grade usually type 80-100 WPM (!?!), so we weren't expecting her odds to win to be very good. Fifteen minutes later I got another text saying she won third place and $50!!

She had 71 WPM with 2 mistakes.
We were SO excited for her to do so well at something she worked so hard at. I told the boys, and we all whooped and hollered a congratulatory message for her, and were ready to do it again when she got home just after 9pm. She wasn't ready for it though; spending four hours in a huge, loud, noise-enhancing gym filled with young kids/families, with hearing aids that exacerbate all the background noise, she had a major headache and was desperate for some medicine and bed.
Kinda an anti-climatic end to the month-long buildup.
She is proud of herself, and so are we.