Many people dream of becoming famous and successful personalities, achieving everything in life that one can only imagine. Someone aspires to earn millions of dollars; someone dreams of finding their soulmate and never part with them. Some people are careerists by nature, which means that achievements in the profession they have chosen are significant to them. My dream started small – I desperately wanted to learn English and to speak it perfectly. The dreams of billions of people living on our planet are united by one simple thing – perseverance. It is impossible to achieve success in any business if one does not put effort and determination. Even the most seemingly impossible goal becomes attainable if the person who aspires to it does not stop, despite the obstacles that arise.
I was born in Cuba, but at the age of 13, I moved to Cape Coral, located in Florida. Of course, I was fluent in Spanish, which was my native language, but I faced a problem in the USA – I needed to learn English to feel comfortable and free. I had a desire to become a complete and successful citizen of the United States, which was impossible without advanced knowledge of the language of this state. Nevertheless, despite my decision, this process was by no means quick and simple.
Learning a foreign language was arduous, although I found myself in a foreign language environment where all the people around spoke English. I had to study hundreds of new words, constructions, phrasal utterances, and symbolic figures of speech. My best friends for a while were reference books on grammar and tenses of the English language, which later allowed me to distinguish all the intricacies of the narrative of English literature.
It was challenging to read aloud, hearing my lousy pronunciation, in which a foreign accent is guessed. Moreover, I often had to deal with criticism from other people who expressed opinions about my successes and even criticized my achievements. Nevertheless, I did not give up, driven by the desire to improve my professional skills and work prospects. In addition, I was eager to increase my self-esteem by ceasing to be the object of criticism for other people, whose comments often embarrassed me and made me blush.
Still, all these difficulties and obstacles could not break my resolve on the way to achieving my goals and dreams. Despite the fatigue and tension, I did exercises, studied grammar, and read books in English to expand my arsenal of words and grammatical techniques. I believed in myself, and my strength showed perseverance and made a tremendous effort to get closer to my goal. After a while, I began to make much fewer mistakes, and even if I did, I stopped being embarrassed and ashamed of them.
I realized that mistakes are an integral part of any thorny path to a dream and that only those who do nothing do not make mistakes. I began to perceive other people’s criticism much more restrained and calmer, sometimes not paying attention to it at all. In the end, my efforts and time spent paid off in total – the English language ceased to be something terrible and unknown for me but became a friend and assistant.
This long and sometimes painful process of learning English has taught me many things that will undoubtedly help me in the future. I realized that I must always believe in my strength, and then I will succeed in any field. It came to me that the main ally in the fight against difficulties and learning a new business is determination and perseverance. No matter how impossible the task may seem, I can cope with it if I make an effort and believe in my skills.