This is Kwabena Adu Darko Asare, the 12th Champion of 'The Spelling Bee' from DPS International School, Tema - Gh.

In my decade plus experience as announcer of the Spelling Bee here in Ghana, Kwabena's story reminded me of the second and third chances that God gives us all in varied scenarios and why we should never give up.

What happened? So we had gone past the elimination round and were in the final round at the 2019 national final held at the Accra Data Center.

What it meant was that the three finalists had to keep spelling till only one got it right. I struggle to remember the exact words in the rounds preceding the last one.

The ‘moment of truth’ came and Jeremy misspelt, Yoofi misspelt and then it was Kwabena’s turn.

Mind you, he had unconsciously courted some love in the packed Hall and quite a number were rooting for him, from what I observed. Kwabena also misspelled.

There was a spontaneous drop in the eager tones waiting to amplify into deafening cheers across the hall.

Then came the next attempt. Jeremy misspelt again and Yoofi misspelt again. Then here was Kwabena. From where I stood, I thought that was it. I thought Kwabena was going to nail it once and for all.

Then he misspelt again. At this point you could practically feel the jitters around the hall.At this point, it was the longest final round I had witnessed in the dozen year history of the bee.

Immediately I threw back to previous champion, Lily Ama Tugba, who won on the stroke of spelling her championship word at the first attempt at the Accra International Conference Center.

Anyways back to the situation. So the third round of spelling came. Jeremy misspelled and Yoofi misspelled. Then here was Kwabena alone on the stage again.

The word was ‘baldenfreude’ and then with this rather naïve look, he spelt B-A-L-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E. Coincidentally I had started shooting a video from my phone for my social media handles.

I caught the moment like a lizard catching a fly. Anyways baldenfreude is of German origin and means the pleasure felt at the misfortune of others getting bald.

Lesson learnt? When you are destined by God to occupy a space, he finds a way of making sure it happens, through various circumstances and events. I am sure most of you can relate.

Secondly, just know that trying once and failing is not the end. Push a second and a third and you may just end up hitting the target.

Be blessed today and be inspired by Kwabena’s story to push beyond the first and second attempts. God bless and have an energy-filled week.