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I come from a white middle class family, my predominate language is English and it is the only language I know. I remember seeing people in public speaking Spanish and thinking they just sounded like they were mumbling, and I did not understand that the sounds they were making were actual words. It took me a while to begin to understand that not everybody speaks English, and some come from families who speak multiple languages. I remember starting kindergarten and my whole class only spoke English. I had walked past a classroom in my elementary school where I saw a teacher speaking in Spanish and working with a smaller group of students. I now know that those students were learning English and their first language was Spanish.

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Throughout elementary school I excelled in my English/Language Arts classes. I was above my reading level and I loved to read. I enjoyed writing as well. I was a pretty shy kid in elementary school, and I did not speak to many of my peers. I knew how I was supposed to talk to my teachers and I knew I could speak to my peers in a more casual way. I enjoyed talking with my mom about school, and I kind of blended the way I spoke with teachers and peers into one language that I use to talked to my family. I speak respectfully to them, but sometimes the slang I have developed comes out when speaking to my family.

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During middle school I started to use Social Media more and by using that I used different words than before. I find out about trending slang words, and abbreviations I would use with my friends. I feel like I had taught myself these new words and slang in order to fit in and be "cool". This is also when I found out about "bad" words and I steered away from using them around my family and teachers. The people around me using these words also made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I tried to use "cool" words to fit in but it also made me feel a bit weird and like I was pretending to be somebody else

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In high school I reverted back to my shy self, and I only spoke to people I knew or if someone was to speak to me first. It is not that I was insecure about my language, I didn't feel the need to talk. In high school I also started to learn a bit of Spanish. I only took it for the credit and now I barely remember any of what I had learned. I remember we had a lot of options to choose from when taking a language course, and I am glad my school offered these.

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During middle school and some of high school I took a Spanish class that was required for graduation. I remember learning simple words and some short sentences. I can remember some words and some phrases, but not nearly enough to help me speak to those who do not know English. I can use my context clues to begin to understand what some people are telling me in Spanish, thanks to the class I took in high school. I am grateful I chose to take Spanish in high school, I just wish I would have learned and retained more information.

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Now that I am in my third year of college, I feel that I have pretty good language skills. There are many words that I use that I am not 100% sure of the meaning. This is because some words make me sound smarter and more qualified, but I don't fully know what they mean. I still get insecure about the words I use and the lack of words I know, but I know that I am never too old to learn something new.