2007 Bonham High School graduate and current University of North Texas student Sarah Wood is one of 12 finalists who traveled to New York City to compete in the LG National Texting Championships with $50,000 going to the first place winner.

Sarah, 22, is pursuing a degree in hospitality management at UNT and works full-time at Rosa's Cafe in Highland Village as a crew leader.

Not only is Sarah a blazing fast texter, but she is also a very accomplished writer.

Here is this breaking story in her words.

"I left for NYC on Monday, and the competition starts tomorrow, Wednesday, October 26 at 2:00 p.m. EST. I'm not sure how fast I am, I've never actually had my speed calculated, so I'm not sure! But I'm fast enough to be one of the final twelve contestants in the contest where over half a million people entered haha. I always just kind of thought I was a fast texter, and when this came up I decided to try my luck. I didn't really make a conscious effort to participate, I just signed up to receive the random "wild card play" messages they sent out. One day I was sitting at home when I got one of the wild card texts, sent it back, and advanced to the next round. I did this two more times and earned a spot in the finals!

"It was a national contest from the start, so I've been competing against contestants from all over the U.S. since the beginning.

"This is my first trip to NYC and I'm really excited. I've always wanted to visit. We've not had much time to sight-see, but we're going to see Wicked on Broadway tomorrow night after the competition and plan on going to do some real sight-seeing Thursday morning before our flight leaves. I'm a really big fan of musicals so I'm thrilled to be seeing a Broadway show live. I'm also looking forward to seeing Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and Rockefeller Plaza.

"There are going to be six rounds in the competition tomorrow. The first one is called Seek & Find, where we have to find a photo in the photo gallery of our competition phones and type the phrase that appears in the photo. Three contestants will be eliminated after this.

"The second round is called Text Blitz, and we have to speed text five phrases back-to-back. If we mess one up, we have to do it again until we get it right. The last two contestants to send the fifth and final text correctly are eliminated.

"The third round is called Txet Sdrawkcab (text backwards) where we will see a phrase completely backwards and we have to type it verbatim.

"It's going to get confusing when our minds automatically read the words correctly and we try to type them out like that.

"The 2010 winner joins in at this point in the competition, and two people are eliminated after this round.

"The fourth round is called Text 'N' Shout, where we will be distracted by cheerleaders and loud music going on all around us while we try to type the phrases.

"The fifth is called Text In the Dark, where the final three competitors are blind-folded and must type a well-known phrase without seeing the keyboard. One contestant is eliminated here.

"And the final round is called Text Attack, where we have to type out the final phrase, which is normally something incredibly difficult with lots of capital letters, symbols, etc. The competition will be over within an hour and a half, at which point the winner will be announced and presented with a $50,000 check from singer/actress Ashley Tisdale.

"The second place winner receives $10,000, third place gets $5,000, and fourth place will receive $2,500."