It pays to listen by Vanessa

It pays to listen by Vanessa - August 2013 Scholarship Essay

As a student growing up in a small town in Nebraska,you know everyone, life is planned out and your just one in the crowd. I decided I want to expand and move out of state to California and see the beaches and try new foreign foods and explore the world. Growing up being mexican we never spoke spanish or were traditional, people always expected me to know spanish because of how I looked, well I decided if I was going to move when I became older I needed to learn spanish. In school I took spanish class very seriously. My teacher would always tell the class that spanish was becoming a huge language and we needed to take class seriously. I would go home and watch spanish television and pick up on the language. My brothers and sisters would get mad if I would speak spanish all day and talk to them in spanish. Well the real test happened when I moved to California in 2011 and was working in Walmart, I had a group of spanish speaking customers come up to me and ask me questions in spanish and spark up conversation. I assisted my customers and standing near by was my manager, he said, I didnt know you were bilingual. I was awarded a raise and I was able to help out different departments when it came to translating. It literally really paid to listen. Spanish was definatly my favorite class aside from biology and it was fun and very useful. College will be a lot like spanish class. I will be doing something I chose to do, something to better my life and be useful and fun.