There are only a couple of once-a-year television events that I tune into almost every year without fail:

1. The Super Bowl

2. UEFA Champions League Final

3. New Year’s Eve show

4. Scripps National Spelling Bee

No, that fourth item is no mistake. When I was thinking about my first Odyssey article, I thought back to last week, the morning after this year's Spelling Bee. My friend was complaining about how ESPN televises the Spelling Bee, and why it makes absolutely no sense, because spelling is hardly a sport. It is definitely hard to make a case that a spelling bee is a sport (let's also keep in mind that poker is an ESPN staple as well), but there still has to be a reason why ESPN has aired the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 1994. That's longer than Monday Night Football has been exclusively on ESPN (since 2005).

Watching the Spelling Bee isn't the most exciting television event. It won't get your heart racing like this weekend's Belmont Stakes, nor leave you at the edge of your seat biting your nails like a penalty shootout would. It's an almost therapeutic experience, and it can also be extremely humbling.

Normally, when I am watching a sport, I think to myself "How the hell did he hit that fadeaway?" or, "How did he make that catch?" As sports fans, we know the athletes we are watching are superior to us. During the Spelling Bee, however, you can actually play along with the contestants and see just how much better the 8th graders on TV are at spelling than you. In 2013, ESPN launched a play-along version on their streaming service, WatchESPN, to make it easy to test out your spelling prowess while indulging in the Bee. Shortly into the show, you will realize that these words are extremely difficult. Most of the time you will end up like my friend who tried to spell the word "pipsissewa." Two tries weren't enough for this UR sophomore.

Then, there are the competitors, who after asking a couple of questions are able to spell the words with ease. Sure, they've practiced for years, but it's still impressive that by learning some foreign word roots, these 11-14 year olds can spell almost any word.

And then, there's Gokul Venkatachalam, one of the two co-champions of this year's Spelling Bee. After finishing third last year, he plowed through the competition this year, all while emitting a swagger that fans had not seen in the history of the Bee. He sported a Lebron James jersey under his button down and Jordans. If walk-up songs were allowed, you know Gokul would've strutted to the microphone to Da Kool Kidz's "J's on my Feet." What's more? On his final word, Gokul didn't ask any questions when the word "Nunatak" was given to him. He spelled it before ESPN was able to put the word on the broadcast. If he misspelled that word, Gokul would've lost and there would've been just one champion. But, as the Twitter-sphere showed, Gokul can only be described with one word: savage.

Like Gokul, there are a couple of kids that make the Spelling Bee an animated event. Dev Jaiswal was another speller this year who captivated the hearts of many viewers. He walked up every round to the mic with a huge smile on his face, eager to spell the next word. When he spelled his word correctly with one second left on the clock (the 'buzzer beater" of spelling bees), his fist pump rivaled that of John Bender's at the end of "The Breakfast Club." It is the little moments like Gokul's and Dev's triumphs that make the Spelling Bee a truly special event.

In my opinion, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is one of the more interesting TV competitions. It is also a wildly popular event; ESPN has retained the rights to the event since '94 and Nielsen reported that it generated 4.5 million unique viewers on Twitter, making it the most popular TV event for that week (beating out "Game of Thrones" and "The Bachelorette"). The Bee even has an "official" drinking game. Disclaimer: good luck spelling anything, let alone the Scripps words, an hour into watching the Bee.

The best part about the Spelling Bee is that the competitors are kids (ages 9-15). Win or lose, whether tears are shed or not, you can tell that everyone enjoys spelling and has a fun time doing it. There is no best player in the league nor that player everyone hates. Very similar to the Little League World Series, the competitors are there for the love of the game. It is a very modest event, and, as 2013 champion (and my all-time favorite speller) Arvind Mahankali demonstrated, it's sometimes too modest...