Understandable gibberish

It had only been one month of trying to adjust in a country that I had never been in. I walked into the biggest building I had ever seen with thousands of steps leading you to the big wooden doors so confidently and as soon as I did my confidence dropped to the floor. The kids here looked different, I wasn’t wearing a uniform to school anymore and it felt weird. My first class was with Ms. Mena. There I sat all alone in a dark room full of books and desks, my teacher was bilingual in Spanish and English, everyday she would encourage me to learn through reading books and diving into a new world, listening to music and learning the lyrics and watching my favorite shows in English. 

After a year of wanting to learn such an interesting language I finally learnt it- to this day it is my biggest accomplishment.

Sixth grade felt different. The classrooms were so full of life and no longer had gibberish on the boards. Then I learned that my English teacher was no longer the one who’d taught me so much. I “moved up” and now my friends weren’t going to be with me anymore. I didn’t understand back then why they decided to move me but now I understand and I’m thankful that I was being “mixed in” with the kids who didn’t look like me and who weren’t in the same situation as me. I had just moved to a new country and I left my old friends that I had in El Salvador, now I had to make new friends and adapt to this new routine of life. I remember in El Salvador school started at 7am to 12pm. I was in a private Christian academy. My mom’s aunt and uncle were the owners and her aunt (who I called “Tia”) was the cook at the cafeteria, with typical food from El Salvador I would eat rich cuisine everyday. When I came home my mother would be at home with lunch and we’d walk to the outdoor market. Nothing like here. In this new place I went to a public school full of strangers and with yucky food. I no longer came home for lunch, instead I came home closer to dinner time. Everything changed. My schedule, my clothes, my diet and now I felt  all alone because I didn’t have any friends, only my sister who I didn’t see all the time. School sucked ever since I moved here but I still decided to give it a chance, what else could go wrong, i just had to make new friends who couldn’t speak my first language and they still helped me to get better everyday.

As I walked into Ms. King’s sixth grade English I was so nervous you could see my face glistening with sweat not of excitement but of nervousness. I felt so good about myself and so proud but I wasn’t sure if I was advanced enough yet to be in a classroom full of people that didn’t look like me. We read so many books that I love now. We read Percy Jackson and I bought the whole collection because I loved it so much. 

Seventh Grade was the year I awaited. We were gonna choose what language to start learning through middle school and High School. As we were led to Cafeteria A by Mr. Sullivan, our gym teacher, I felt as if I was on my way to make the biggest decision of my life in front of my classmates. As we entered, there were 3 tables set out for students to see the languages they offered to learn. First was French, then Spanish and finally Italian. I looked at French but it didn’t interest me as much as Italian did. As I walked toward Mrs. Iulliano’s “Italian extravaganza table” as she called it, I knew this is what I wanted. I was so excited to learn something new. Although at first I was terrified of change I was about to do it all again but it didn’t matter, I told myself I would be okay and how excited I was to learn something new and make my parents proud of their daughter.

After 6 years of Italian and 8 years of English, I am now trilingual. I know three languages after thinking I couldn’t even learn English and now I’m eager to learn more such as Portuguese and French. I would love to learn their cultures as well and see how the people are. One day I hope to travel the world and get to speak this language with natives and be able to communicate in 5 other languages and I could also help people out if they need anything because I know what it once felt like to hear gibberish from peoples mouths and being confused but having someone understand you and be able to help you out is an amazing feeling that you are not alone.

Thank you