I’ve been on a collision course since before I appeared on Earth. Always wedged between two languages, two countries, two very different ideas of how life should play out. Two different paths to follow, and I always felt as if I had to choose one, instead of paving my own path through the unknown. And, I would like to say that I have decided which path to take, but I haven not. Because, like many things in life, it is not as simple as I would like the decision to be. I am attempting, giving this thought my all, to pave my own course in the whirlwind I face of German versus English. I prefer German to English, but the life I live in the heart of the south does not ever accommodate for my wish of having impeccable German, that is, without endless …show more content…
With my German thought to be erased from my memory, save a few words, I arrived to Vienna on my second summer there, where I uttered my very first German exclamation. “Unser Bus kommt!” (Our bus is coming!) My parents remember this crucial moment; the moment they knew my Germanmade the decision to come back. Oblivious to my wish to speak fluently, my prowess took a break up until that day, when my German began to prepare for the biggest comeback of its lifetime. From that day on, my ability expanded to create a basis from which I built off of in a year I spent at the local international school, and what I consider the most pivotal comeback of my lifetime. Fourth grade was the most difficult year of my young life, but also the most beneficial, as that one year strengthened my dexterity of the language to the point where those single sentences became two, then three, then whole paragraphs, and this time it was the Germans’ turn to balk at my inane grammar choices. My abilities have fluctuated since that fateful yet successful year, but nowadays I am frequently mistaken for a local in Vienna, which continues as one of the most humbling experiences I have yet to encounter. My bilingual finesse is a quality I utilize with my family, everyday, whether we wish to simply get away from the associations of English, or we wish to have our own language in public, it’s definitely a life-altering addition to my already phenomenal life, an addition I would not give up for anything. The merging of the two worlds I have come to embrace continues to push my boundaries every day, even without the language portion, always adjusting to the differences between the two, and missing whatever land I am not visiting at the moment. But, as one must do, one does adjust, and continue to live in a constantly converging world,