My family is mostly made up of immigrants. My mom’s side of the family are from the Dominican Republic. My dad’s side of the family is from Nigeria. Both sets of my grandparents had migrated to the United States in order to find better opportunities. My mom grew up in the Dominican Republic as well but she soon moved to New York. That’s where she had met my dad. Growing up, I was mostly speaking Spanish and a little bit of Yoruba. It wasn’t until I got to kindergarten that I started learning how to read and write in English. 

Even though my mom didn’t know much English, she still made do in New York and helped me and my sister live an easier life. I remember my mom and grandma buying us those books where you had to trace the letters and numbers. Besides playing with dolls, those books were my favorite. My mom wanted us to learn how to read and write in English but at the same time, she didn’t want us to lose our ability to read and write in Spanish. She got us Spanish books as well so we can stick to our roots.

 When I was younger, I always excelled when it came to writing. By the third grade, I was able to write swiftly unlike my other classmates. I believe it was more so me being obsessed with my handwriting and wanting to perfect it. It got to the point where I taught myself to write in script. My 3rd grade teacher complained to my mom that I was too advanced and I shouldn’t be writing in script until about the 5th grade. Sounds to me like she was just envious of my skills. I didn’t excel so much when it came to reading though. My family wasn’t poor but we weren’t rich either. Every time there was a book fair at school, I wasn’t fortunate enough to have money to buy books like other students. I feel like that played a big part in my vocabulary. Since I wasn’t reading as much, my vocabulary couldn’t expand. It always upsetted me that I couldn’t read the books I wanted to when I was younger. I was only able to read little passages that my teachers would assign for class. There’s this teacher I had named Ms. Rivera. She was the best teacher I ever had. She’d donate books to me so that I can read them at home. I was grateful to have gotten these books because I wanted to be preeminent in reading. During my whole childhood, I read hundreds and hundreds of books. Unfortunately, as I got older the reading stopped. I would still love to read now but my attention span is not how it used to be. Growing up, I was able to learn english and also teach my family as well. Which was a big plus for me. I used to be frustrated trying to teach my family new words and phrases but it all worked out in the end. I’m glad that my upbringing was able to help my family bring us closer together in another language that we can both proficiently understand.