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Even though I was both a huge babbler and crier, it took me longer to start actually speaking. I spoke my first word, "Mama" when I was around 14 months old. However, when I talked for the first time, my mom and dad realized there was something off about how I spoke. My words came out sounding very strained. They found out I was Tongue-Tied, which meant my tongue was attached to the floor of my mouth through a web of tissue.

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After having surgery to remove the extra tissue connecting my tongue and the floor of my mouth, I retained many speech problems from learning to talk the way I did. This resulted in many years of speech therapy. I had an interventionist in elementary school who would work with me one-on-one. To this day I still cannot pronounce a few words, especially those involving R's, O's, and U's.

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Growing up, I loved to read. This affected my language in many different ways. Not only was I at an advanced reading level throughout elementary school, but teachers often told me that I sounded "mature" for my age due to my vocabulary. However, because I learned so many different words through reading rather than speaking, I oftentimes mispronounced words by saying them phonetically.

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I took Spanish I and II in both seventh and eighth grade. Even though it was a required credit, I found myself enjoying learning a new language a lot! My teacher was from Guatemala and taught us so much about his life growing up as well as Guatemalan culture. Due to my speech impediment, the pronunciation was very difficult for me. I was sadly never able to learn how to roll my R's, much to my teacher's dismay.

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From four to fourteen years old, I was an All-Star competitive cheerleader. This is where I picked up on many terms I used throughout my adolescence. Silly phrases such as "Bye Felicia" and "Fierce" were used widely by my older teammates and coaches, which is how I started implementing them into my speech patterns. Phrases like these have changed with the times but still remain an active part of my speech today.

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My partner is from Germany and has very strong ties to her culture and language. As a way to feel connected to her on a cultural basis, I started doing Duolingo lessons in German. This is the first time I have tried to learn a foreign language since I took Spanish in middle school, so there is still a strong learning curve taking place.