Introducing Me My name is Melissa Diaz, but my friends call me Meli. I was born and raised in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba. At ten years old, I experienced a drastic change in my life, my family and I moved to the United States. Moving to the U.S brought upon enormous changes in my life. The new culture, language, and people were challenging to adapt to at such a young age. The most impacting change was the language barrier. When I first arrived to the U.S, I couldn’t communicate with people due to the fact that I wasn’t familiar with the language. Reading was such an important factor in understanding and mastering the language, it was my breakthrough into English. That feeling of being part of the story, understanding the characters, the authors motives,