Change ha been the one contant in my life. While taring out at the bleak Wiconin winter, I think back to my beginning on a warm tropical iland. The bigget change wa probably the firt moving from that buzzing Spanih-peaking ile to the leepy ea-ide town that wa Tampa in 1978. It took me ome time to realize that the other pre-chooler could not undertand my native tongue. Before long, I too wa peaking their language.
Five year later I, an excited eight-year-old girl, boarded a chool bu in New Jerey. The excitement quickly turned to fear a I heard rampant wearing in the back of the bu. I wa truly hocked when the bu driver did nothing to top the vulgarity. In my chool in Florida uch behavior would have met with a bar of oap and a viit to the principal office. A year later, I had a "Jerey" accent, and had tarted wearing too.
After nine year my family then moved to a place called "a whole 鈥檔other country": Texa. I dicovered that everything i bigger in Texa, from the ize of a gla of ice tea to the ditance on the road. My mother added barbecued briket to the regular menu of turkey and Idaho potatoe on Monday and arroz con pollo on Tueday.
The incredibly friendly Texan, wearing cowboy boot and going to high chool football game on Friday night, eemed a totally different breed from my friend in New Jerey. A light drawl entered my peech.[由www.hAozuowEn.com整理]
In two year time, I found myelf in the mountain of rural Bolivian. A part of a team of doctor and tudent reearching hypertenion on a group of African- Bolivian villager, I quickly learned a new vocabulary that included medical and anthropological term. The greatet tet of my linguitic abilitie came when a villager accued me of drinking blood ample in ome kind of vampire-like witchcraft ritual. I had to bridge a vat cultural gulf to explain a DNA iolation and analyi protocol in Spanih to omeone who had never heard of a gene much le a double helix.
A year later I tood in a line at a McDonald outide Bueno Aire aking for a orbeto with a Puerto Rican accent and receiving a blank tare in return. I did not realize that in Argentina the word for traw wa papote. Working at the U.S. embay, I could clearly ee the obviou difference between the U.S. and Argentina, but being out among the people and actually experiencing the culture helped me begin to undertand and appreciate the ubtle difference which, when taken together, make up a people.
Each place I have lived ha it difference, from the obviou ditinction of Wiconin and Texa weather, to the regional variation of the Spanih language. I bring with me wherever I go a part of thoe place and the impact they have had on my life, mot evident to other by the variation in my peech. Beneath all the accent, however, lie omething more ignificant, for I believe who you are i immeaurable more important than where you were. When I wa younger, I could not clearly dicern between ituation where I hould or hould not adopt the way of thoe around me. With maturity however I have come to undertand the crucial difference between adaptation and aimilation. I have choen to reject the vulgarity of the New Jerey chool bu; I have alo adopted the Texanwarm and friendly manner. Having experienced frequent move to very different urrounding, I can adapt without compromiing what i important to me while learning from each new etting.
A ign hung in my garage for many year that aid, "Home i where you can cratch where it itche." To me thi mean that home i wherever you are comfortable and ecure with yourelf and your urrounding. I will be at home and prepared to meet new challenge wherever I am. Starting over o many time ha taught me not to fear failure, but rather to embrace opportunitie for change.