YOUTH

It was 2009, The second day of school, I was in the first grade. I had just come back from Bangladesh after staying there for 5-6 months. First grade was awfully difficult for me, I couldn’t read properly. I had a hard time differentiating words and spelling. I was so used reading Bengali and speaking it since that’s all I was doing for the past couple months. I had lost my ability to formulate and structure sentences. So, on the second day of school were all given reading tests, where students were brought up individually to the teacher desk to be asked to read out loud. The teacher then gives you a level determined on how you read.

I remember all my friends getting their levels. Level B, C, some even got an E. It was my time to go. I remember the text being short, but I couldn’t even pronounce the words and I overall didn’t do that well. I was really embarrassed of myself, and it felt as if I wouldn’t be able to recover. I knew I had a long journey ahead of me. My teacher wanted to speak with my parents because she believed that the class wouldn’t suffice. I would need to be placed in an ESOL class, so that I can better improve my English and come up to speed with my classmates. She explained to my mom that this class still wouldn’t be enough, and I needed to go to tutoring for English. Being placed in ESL during school along with tutoring after, I was trying my best to get that extra practice. The teacher told my mom to start speaking English in the house so that your children can pick up on words and overall build their language slowly.

I knew how to read, but I was slow. It took me a while to pronounce words and build fluidity. Things started to change once my dad started taking me to the library. I used to go every week to read books and to borrow new books to bring home. My dad also put me in this learning center that was in the library where teachers would help kids work on their English language and help them build their vocabulary. At first, I was hesitant of going, because I was a shy kid. But slowly I started to get more comfortable in the environment also with my teacher. He taught me how to conjugate sentences, He introduced me to new genre of books. He also helped me with spelling and my writing. I was doing well I learned new words and my vocabulary was more advanced and my writing was far better than anyone my classmates. It finally felt as if there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and I was going somewhere with all this practice and time I was putting in.

It wasn’t until the third grade where I was pulled from the ESOL program and placed in a regular class. I remember taking the reading exam later that year and having the highest reading score in the class. I was told my efforts wouldn’t go unnoticed. I was then given an award for academic excellence at the end of fourth grade. This was a significant moment in my life, I felt a feeling of comfort, knowing that all my hard work paid off. Relief is a great feeling, the emotional and physical reward we get from our bodies after relieving that pressure is remarkable. I learned that anything was possible if you put your mind to it, I always think about this moment even now. School is much harder now, but you must keep pushing yourself forward to reach that end goal. If it wasn’t for my parents and for that tutor in the Queens Library I would’ve been lost. I wouldn’t know how to read and write properly and probably still lagging behind others.