The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

Narrative & Memoir 59 “Me Llamo Meredith” Meredith Conn Meredith is a junior Allied Health student on her way to graduate school for Occupational Therapy. She hopes to one day use her degree as a ministry and means of serving those around her. In her free time, Meredith enjoys teaching swing dancing lessons in the recreational center and tutoring students in Cedarville’s Writing Center. Those words filled my entire body with panic. My heart was racing, my palms were sweating, and my legs could barely hold me up. It was my turn to introduce myself to the required Spanish class I needed to take in order to graduate from high school. I quickly stood up from my uncomfortable, scribbled on desk and, with a flushing face, muttered, “Me llamo Meredith.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I sat back down and stared at the vulgar sketches on my desk. I was terrified. While everyone else had already had years of Spanish exposure throughout middle school, this was my first day ever truly hearing and speaking it. When we had all finished introducing ourselves, our teacher smiled and said “¡Muy bien!” My teacher, Señora Ortiz, was full of life. She embodied that fresh, beginning of the year spirit. It was also her first year teaching at North Hunterdon High School, located in the cornfields and farmland of northwest New Jersey. Though the classroom was boiling during the fall and freezing during the winter, Señora smiled and laughed as she enunciated every word. She had a hand gesture that went with every noun and an action to go with every verb. She would often point to objects in the room or draw them on the white board if we could not catch on. Capturing my attention was easy; however, grasping the meaning of the content was a challenge. Despite her welcoming and enthusiastic attitude in class, the idea of learning a whole new language continued to petrify me. As a result, the days turned into weeks, and I remained just as lost in this foreign language as I had been on the first day of class. Without a basic, background understanding of how the Spanish language