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Fabiana Urbina

Office of Admissions

1 November 2019

There are countless obstacles, challenges, and failures that can mentally or

physically affect anyone’s success. Not everyone has the ability to bounce back and learn from

their mistakes, but it is possible to build yourself up and work hard to achieve success in the long

run. A major challenge that was presented in my life was moving from my country of origin to

an entirely different country. The drastic change of the language barrier, having to leaving my

family behind, and starting anew in a different environment was detrimental for my mental

health. The easy way to deal with the situation as a child was to give up and not move forward,

yet I made the decision to keep going because I knew I could do something more and give

myself a chance.

Previous to the move, my life took place in Venezuela. I was born there and lived there

for most of my childhood, making it hard for me detach myself. I was not aware of the life

outside of my bubble, besides TV and the minimal English I was taught in school, there was no

other source of knowledge. After my parents divorced and my mom found a new husband, my

mom made the conscience decision to take me, with the permission of my dad to the United

States. I did not know what was happening and how much different it would be, but to this day I

am grateful for my mom’s choice.

Although I am grateful now for moving into a developed country, I had a hard time

adjusting into the school environment. I was the first student to come in speaking absolutely no

English and not being able to communicate was detrimental. On the first day of school, the
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teacher put me in front of the class so I could introduce myself and all I could feel was

embarrassment. The blood rushing to my face, my hands started sweating, and it seemed as if I

had forgotten my own name. Never in my life I have felt this, from there my confidence had

plummeted and my anxiety had gone through the roof. Going home was the best thing after

every day of school, I wanted to stay home with my family and never go back there. I felt as if

everyone would talk negatively about me; I just told my mom that I wanted to go back, I didn’t

want to learn English because there was no use for it for me. I had found a friend in school that

spoke Spanish, I could still understand math in class, and I was taken to ESL, so it didn’t affect

me, in my mind there was no use to me to learn to speak English.

Clearly this wasn’t the case, after a couple months of me not really caring to learn the

language, my mom got called in to the school. She was told that if I didn’t not learn English

before school was over, I could not graduate and would have to stay back. After that something

sparked in me, never in my life had I been held back for not knowing something, so I knew I had

to I apply myself. Before the school year was over, I met the criteria that I needed, and graduated

with the class that I am a part of today. As a 10-year-old, the anxiety, depression, and the feeling

of rejection is something I could never wish on anyone else. But looking back from where I am

today, I knew I had to live through that to understand how lucky I am for being able to speak two

languages and how capable I am to work hard and succeed.