Hello, my name is De’Nazia Hebron (pronounced “duh-neigh-ja” “he-bron”) and I am currently an English student at Old Dominion University. I am seeking an English degree with a concentration in creative writing. Or: Hola. Mi nombre es De’Nazia Hebron, y soy una estudiante de ingles en Old Dominion University. Aprendí español para diez años. Ahora, necesito aprender español para graduarme.

I first started going to college in the summer of 2021. I initially went to Brightpoint Community College (formerly known as John Tyler Community College), where I graduated in the fall of 2022 with an associates in liberal arts and general studies. I then transferred to ODU in the spring of 2023, where I also stayed in the dormitory for the first time.

My history with taking Spanish started in the seventh grade, which was around 2013. I initially signed up to take a world languages class, as I was interested in a variety of languages — such as Italian and Japanese. But the class was suddenly transformed mostly into a Spanish class, as the teacher could only really teach Spanish. And I’ve been taking Spanish ever since then. I took the second half of Spanish I while in the eighth grade, and I then took Spanish II in the ninth grade, and Spanish III in the tenth grade. I will say that my favorite Spanish teacher was my Spanish III teacher. I felt as if I learned the most Spanish when it came to her. I remember a group project where we made horchata and another group project where we filmed a telenovela.

Just when I thought that my journey in taking Spanish was over, I found out that taking a language at an intermediate level was the only required class of my liberal arts degree. Because I had absolutely no background in French, it was a no-brainer to return to Spanish. Fearing that I was rusty, I took a Beginner II course to relearn my skills during the spring of 2022. It was one of the first college classes that I had taken in person, and it was a nice experience. My teacher was fun and I managed to make a couple of friends at the time. Admittedly, I didn’t do as well as my classes continued on. Intermediate I and Intermediate II passed by, and I received a low grade in Intermediate II. It was enough to graduate, but not enough to transfer over to ODU. Hence why I am taking Intermediate II, or Spanish 202, again for the summer of 2023.

I don’t know what else I can say. I honestly see Spanish, alongside every other course I have to take, as a series of roadblocks toward a seemingly unattainable goal of attempting to earn my degree. It feels like every time I try to take a step forward, I just get pushed three steps back. I already said that this is my second time having to take this class. Maybe there will be an inevitable third time, since I didn’t do well this go around either. Maybe that’s what I get for trying to rush through some classes during the summer. Maybe I need a break. I don’t know what it is that keeps stopping me. I wasn’t even able to take my final writing exam, for crying out loud, because of random, last-minute technical issues that weren’t even on my end. It just feels like God or something is making up any sort of excuse to set me back at this point. And I just have to accept it. That’s just the way life goes. Spanish is something that I have to carry with me forever, whether I like it or not. It’s a part of me.

So, I don’t know what the future holds. I think over time, you forget about the whole foundation of what you’ve learned, but you always carry of the sum of its parts with you. You may not remember everything that you’ve learned in Spanish class, you may never even speak it again, but you’ll be able to decipher the bits and pieces of Spanish that you read while scrolling through comments online or reading the subtitles to a movie. You’ll carry the hardships with you, and learn how to redistribute them to another place and time. You’ll learn in ways that you never thought you would, and you may not initially think to attribute it to the Spanish class(es) that you took all those years ago — but that’s the reason why you grew.