NORWICH – Memorizing the dictionary is a task many people may not chose to take part in, but one middle school student says it’s not that bad.

Hayley Chwazik-Gee, an eighth grader from Norwich Middle School, is on her way to Washington D.C. to compete against hundreds of other children nation-wide at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Chwazik-Gee says she had never really heard about spelling bee competitions before this year, and she thought it would be fun to try. Hayley won a spelling bee in January at the middle school and continued on to the regional spelling bee sponsored by The Daily Star in Oneonta. Her win in Oneonta included a Webster’s third new world unabridged dictionary, a $100 savings bond, gift certificates to Amazon.com, a plaque and an all-expense-paid trip for two to Washington, D.C. to compete on the national level.