English wasn’t my first language, but having the privilege of learning it is something that I’m very grateful for. 

     Growing up, my parents didn’t know much English. So, at home we never spoke it, and we still don’t to this day. Even though my mom taught me the alphabet and numbers growing up, I didn’t know how to properly speak it until I was six. After second grade, by going to school and practicing my English a lot, I became the most fluent one in my family, which led to me becoming a walking translator. I started going to appointments, making calls, and even learning to book things. Though it was my first time doing all this, the privilege of knowing English helped me get through it. 

     I remember one of my first times I went to a doctor’s appointment with my dad. I thought it would be easy because I knew English, but it turns out I was wrong. I went inside with my dad and started helping him translate. It seemed pretty easy until we got to the end of the appointment when the doctor came in and started telling me what was wrong. I remember hearing these big words and phrases that I didn’t understand. I sat there thinking, “how am I supposed to translate this if I don’t even know what it means?” 

     At the time, I just nodded and pretended to understand because I didn’t want to just ignore what the doctor said. So, I just told my dad some random stuff but wrote down the big words I didn’t understand. Once I got home, I searched the words up on google and learned what they meant. None of the words meant something bad until I got to this one word: glaucoma. I taught myself about it and then learned what I needed to do for my dad.

     After that day, I made sure to always ask questions if I didn’t understand. These things really helped shape me as a person, knowing how to do things at an early age that most kids my age don’t. Being able to know multiple languages and switch between them is a privilege, one that I didn’t learn until I had gone through it.