I’ve spoken Spanish all my life, it has always been a part of me. I would go to elementary school when I was little and I never thought I would have to learn another language because 1. My classes were all in Spanish and 2. Because Spanish was the only language I would hear so to me everything in the world was in Spanish. It wasn’t until about the 4th or 5th grade that I started to realise that this is something I do in fact have to learn. 

At first I would struggle a lot to understand it, but then my sisters would talk in front of me in English to help me understand it a bit more. I didn’t  speak English until I was in 4th grade where I was pulled aside in class to have extra help to understand this new language that I just couldn’t seem to grasp. I would practice with my sisters and speak it during class but I would still fail my English tests. I specifically remember one time I took an English test and I got a 29 on it. After that my mom went to a parent teacher conference and after, she asked me why I did so badly on it. Why was it that everyone was understanding this new language but me? That's when I realized I had to do something about this, I had to learn English. 

From then on, I only spoke English to my sisters and tried to speak it as much as I could when I wasn’t with my parents. It was never hard to communicate with others in my class because it seemed that we were all going through the same experience. It wasn’t until 5th grade that I finally understood English and I was able to read and write it without much trouble. I was able to read a book and I would automatically understand, and was able to write without having to think in Spanish then translating it to English. I started finally doing well on my quizzes and I was so proud of myself because I was able to learn and understand a new language that at first I had no idea about.

As I kept growing up I remember being scared to leave elementary school and come to a new school because I wasn’t confident enough in my English speaking skills and since my sister already came to high school, I thought I would have to be as good at English as she was to come to this school. When I first walked into 6th grade it was opposite of what I thought it would be, I did hear many people speaking Spanish and that made me feel more comfortable. 

I was able to speak Spanish to some of my peers, but for the most part everything was understandable. My family has always been there for me when I started coming to my current school and my sister has always been really helpful incase I had a question or didn’t understand something they would explain. As the years at middle and high school went by, my understanding with English grew more and more until where I am now and speaking,reading, and understanding English to the best that I can. I am extremely proud where I am right now with this thing that took me most of my life to learn and that I am still learning. I have experienced a few challenges and a couple good learning experiences that I'm grateful for because I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn’t for them.

Learning English was not easy, but losing my Spanish was not hard. Throughout the process of learning this new language, and the more and more I would speak it was also the more and more I was slowly forgetting spanish. When I would talk to my parents there were words I just couldn’t remember in Spanish. I would have to describe the words in Spanish to remember and relearn the language I grew up with.  

Over the years of my life in school one important thing I learned was to not be afraid to make mistakes and own them when you do, because that's the only way you will get better. I have always been afraid of making mistakes and saying something wrong, but now I realize that if I say something wrong or make a mistake I'm growing. I’m growing as a person, I’m growing as an individual and I’m growing to be me.