If you took part in a spelling bee as a child, what word made you lose everything?

If you grew up in the US, you’ve probably heard of a thing called a spelling bee. It’s a school-wide competition in which students anxiously walk up to the stage, stand shaking in front of a microphone, and are given a random word to spell. If you spell the word correctly, you can move on to the next round. Got it wrong? You are OUT and HUMILIATED.

We can’t all be winners. While one person from each school was crowned the spelling champion, the rest of us messed up one word and got kicked out. We have only one word left that will cause torment for the rest of our days.

It was cruel. The Hunger Games I never could. If you were involved, I imagine you still have personal grievances to this day. Let’s work on our spelling bee(f) together. I want to know the word that made YOU lose everything.

First I will reveal myself: ENVIRONMENT. WRONG. This is the ENVIRONMENT. I missed the letter “n” and I will never forgive myself for it. It’s been 21 years, but sometimes I think about throwing out trash just to get back at the environment for the shame it brought me on that cold, dreary day in fourth grade.

Were you one of the poor students who got cursed with the word “pterodactyl” after a participant before you got lucky with a word as simple as “table”? INJUSTICE! Tell us about it in the comments.

Maybe you pulled Dwight Schrute out Office and misspelled the word “failure” in front of the entire school.

We want to know! No matter how embarrassing it is. We want to know if the word “embarrassing” IS. Your comment may be included in the next BuzzFeed Community mail!