By the time I was three, my mom was amazed at my Spanish-speaking abilities. But by the age of 7, she realized, my siblings and I needed more formalized lessons and drove us to White Plains every Thursday. Although I didn’t mind learning and speaking with my mom daily, I dreaded those Thursdays and the long car drives and would constantly whine and complain, “Why do you make me do this?” 

After 2 years of doing lessons in New York, all of a sudden my mom decided to stop taking us there, and instead practice at home. Consistently learning at home would become an issue for me. I didn't want to learn a second language, but since I was young I wasn't thinking about the long-term positives that could sprout from being bilingual. My mom always stressed speaking Spanish at home but I wasn't motivated to learn. Instead, I would just speak in English even though she was talking to me in Spanish. I would always get into arguments over doing the work because I would rather just be with friends. After months of barely working with my mom, she realized I had lost so much Spanish. Those costly decisions to not learn had their repercussions, one was evident when I traveled to Spain to see relatives after I had stopped the lessons and avoided speaking Spanish at home. In Spain, I couldn't talk with my friends and family very well anymore. Whenever they would burst out laughing or discuss serious matters, I had to act as if I knew what was going on and would feel left out. That was embarrassing as my relatives and friends expected me to understand and participate as I used to do when I was younger. Instead, I would rely on my siblings and ask them to translate what they were talking about. They also knew that my mom held me to a standard to speak Spanish and I had not made her proud. 

Those family visits to Spain made me appreciate when I was able to speak with everyone. I had better trips as I knew what was going on. After some time, I realized that I was being lazy. I wanted to become more a part of my Spanish heritage and that started with knowing the language. I talked more Spanish at home with my mom which led to a better comprehension of vocab and day-to-day conversations. I've recently started doing lessons with her and have been very consistent. Those decisions I made flipped my mindset toward learning Spanish because they will help me be prepared for my Spanish speaking in the future. The time when I realized my new capability to communicate was on my most recent trip to Spain, the relatives I saw were all surprised that I could speak Spanish so well. That let me have a very enjoyable trip as I could converse with them about anything I wanted to talk about and laugh along. Most importantly, it led to me being able to voice my opinion on what we did, and how I acted around people as I could be more talkative. That finally lead to making my relationships with my relatives better. With each visit to Spain, I can be more independent and know how important it is to know another language. I now don't need to be reminded to practice.