This past Sunday, I hit 1000 days of continuous study of Spanish. Just the day before, I was with Jazmin (my girlfriend)‘s family celebrating a joint birthday and graduation party for her brother and sister respectively. Upon entering the party, I greet everyone in Spanish, make some cheeky comment, and then get my plate of food. Not too long after, all her little cousins ask me to play, ranging from frisbee to tossing them up in the air. Throughout “playtime,” we are context-switching between English and Spanish.
As we get time for cake and piñatas, I am singing coloquial Mexican songs as if I had always sung them. As the night is closing out, my girlfriend’s mom — or as I say, my suegra — asked me a question about my grandma, and I go on talking about her for 5–10 minutes only in Spanish. A few minutes later, after I sat down with my second plate for a midnight snack, she said in Spanish: “Tracy, your Spanish is getting much better.” It felt like a beautiful symbol on day 999. It’s not always perfect, and I forget words, but just a couple of years ago I would have been completely lost in this foreign world, language, and life.
I actually started learning Spanish as a way to keep my Mexican grandma as a part of my life forever. When she was 97, I began asking her more about her life in México. My family and I had grown up without speaking any Spanish and without knowing anything about México beyond Cancún, as the rest of my family is white. Then, I realized that this beautiful part of our family would pass away and be lost with my grandmother — and go with it the language, the culture, and the history that she carries with her each day. I could not let that happen.
Since then, I have now been learning Spanish every day to make sure I will always carry my grandmother with me and continue her legacy, for she is the best grandmother in this world and one of the most important women in my life. I even ended up coming to visit my amazing cousins in Monterrey and Mexico City for 3 weeks back in 2023. Now, my grandmother is still with me, and at 100 years old, we only speak to each other in Spanish.
Now for what I have learned: primarily, consistency is a killer. I carry this mentality with me in whatever I do now, always telling myself I can be better bit by bit. Big flashy one-time things aren’t as important as showing up every day. Next, continuous learning is an immense and powerful internal driver for me. I feel grateful that I can apply myself to a new field and reach a strong level of proficiency. Thirdly, languages are a connector. I look at different languages, street signs, or historical facts with a new lens. I’m able to understand and interpret the world better than before.
