13 walking to 19

Making a move

I would say I spent sophisticated days as a 13 year old. Moving from an advanced country in Asia to a developing country in Africa was something difficult for me and even for many other people I know who went through a similar situation.

Years ago, if anyone had told me that I'd be writing these down in English , I would have  just laughed. My English back in the day was terrible and not understandable. It also had a funny tone. 

Except that,  I had a long curly hair, a very flat tummy and some clear skin I was proud of.  A child I was, thinking that looks were everything any girl needed. Hence, my inability to communicate with the people of my new country  became my biggest problem at that point. 

What did I do? I had no other option but to study English. 

In school, some kids younger than I was laughed at my pronunciation, accent and my spellings as well.  I was astonished. I thought that people in that country cared less about knowledge or intelligence  but no, I thought wrong. 

Leaving the 'middle school' aspect to the next chapter, let me talk a little about the 'move' I basically made.

Asia was where I was born and raised as a black asian mixed race going to a regular public school. Right after my first semester in middle school, I moved to Africa. It was my third time going to Africa and for some reasons I was super excited, not understanding the meaning of 'going to stay there for good'.

Those days in the country, getting access to electricity and water was pretty hard for some people. Unfortunately, I was among those people. There were uncountable nights I had slept without the fridge working and days I spent taking a bath in a relative's house.  My father often left  me at home with my aunt and grandmother who both could not speak the language I could speak.  Even on the television, there was nothing entertaining since almost all the shows were in English which I could barely understand.

Ever since I was little, I had dreamt of speaking English fluently, but not in a way I seriously dreamt of it when I ran into the reality as a foreigner in Africa. It had given me a clearer motivation to study harder to prove some people wrong.... 

No,  I lied. That was just something nice to say.  At that age,  all I ever  wished for was "attention".  The immature mindset I had at that time was that in order to get that attention, I had to speak well in public first.  Therefore, my main inspiration to learn how to speak better English was simply "fighting for attention and popularity".  

Now if you've read up to this paragraph, you must be thinking, "so basically, she was just an attention wanting girl". 

Well yes I was. As young as I was, all that I really cared about was being popular and making new friends. 

It took me about 3 months to be able to write a full essay in English. Conversations had become more interesting since I could understand people's statements better by then. 

My entire movement from Asia to Africa was never a joke, especially keeping up with light off and the piercing mosquitos which caused Malaria.

 Nevertheless,  I have never regretted moving to Africa. The people have a beautiful culture and a special way of warmly welcoming people. 

However, my little piece of advice to anyone moving from a country to another for a long while; 

Obviously, you won't find everything easy on you and it might take quite a long time to cope with the new system and even with the language. What helped me most was 'communication'. With both English and the local language, I spoke to anyone at all, totally self aware of my weird pronunciation. 

 I needed to communicate with people to better my English and my stay in the country. Communication led me to better understanding of the country's culture and systems. 

 Thanks to everyone who tried their best to understand my terrible English.  I believe communication has more advantages than disadvantages so you should surely keep that in mind. 

This was the  move I made in my first stage of teenage, or probably a little before that. The  beginning of everything I have experienced as a teenager. 

*My dear readers, sit down, relax and enjoy my cup of teen tea as the next chapter of this stage would soon be ready to appear on your screen*