joyeux anniversaire

I realized last night that this week marks my one year anniversary in my French journey.

A year ago I was sitting in a classroom in Combs Hall petrified about learning a language. I had no prior experience with another language and had absolutely no idea about what to expect.

I was pretty certain that I was going to fail. That I was going to earn a failing grade for the next four semesters.

But it turns out that I'm not completely a failure at this whole learning a language thing.

I worked my way up from a B- to an A- in three semesters. I wrote a 900+ word essay completely in French during an intensive summer program. Now I'm studying French abroad.

And a year ago I had no inkling that any of this would occur.

This realization came at the best time. Speaking French is not easy and it's hard not to feel like you will never get better at it. Which is how I feel 24/7 right now.

Throw in a little homesickness, living in a new environment and you have a great case of the blues.

But if I look back over how much I've accomplished in the past year, and the solid grammar foundation I've built, I can be hopeful about the future.

I know, I know. The first few weeks are the hardest. I'm finding that out, y'all. But nobody can prepare you for how hard. I want to talk and talk and talk in French, but it's just not possible. Yet. But it will be.

In my head I can my dad's encouraging voice telling me to take it one step at a time.

That's what I'm doing. After classes, I work on vocabulary and finish up homework. At dinner our host parents ask us questions about our day and they make us talk. No oui or non answers for them!

It's interesting to compare my current struggles with last year's struggles. A year ago today I didn't even know what a verb conjugation was nor how to pronounce a French sound. At this moment, I can conjugate so many verbs and my French pronunciation is a trillion times better.

Baby steps, y'all, baby steps.

Happy anniversary to me! I'm excited to think about where my French skills will be next year. I'm hoping that I'll be able to read books.

I think tomorrow I'll buy myself a celebratory crepe. Or a cupcake. Or the biggest latte imaginable. Or all three.

I have goals.