Undergraduate / 'four-week English summer course' - Experience that changed my life. UC Prompt [3]

A valuable memory

Out of all my memories, this one makes me smile every time I imagine it.
I am standing in front of an old school building on an exhaustingly hot summer day. I see myself dragging a heavy suitcase up the staircase to the main entrance of the American International School in Salzburg, and I notice my Supervisor looking at me. The phrase "Hello, pleased to meet you!", along with any other phrases that I had practiced so vigorously preparing for this acquaintance, left my mind to be replaced with nothing. Choking on illegible words and handing out my documents, I felt the disappointment escalate. Taking my room key, I looked down at the long corridor and two staircases that stood between me and my room. The corridor was full of people. Some of them greeted me, some just kept on starring. Still, I could not reproduce a single phrase from my English book that I thought I had poured over to commit to memory. All I could do was to concentrate all my attention on looking straight forward and pulling my luggage up the stairs.

This was the beginning of my four-week English summer course.
The first day was a big surprise to me; I saw tons of different people with different backgrounds and cultures who could easily communicate between themselves in a foreign language. All of them were able to do it, excluding me. It was strange to feel so completely detached from a place that I knew was supposed to become my new home for possibly the next two years. I had a choice: upon my completion of the summer course I had to decide whether I would like to stay or return back home. I had time to decide.

My first week held many new discoveries about myself. I realized that not only could I not keep myself together when trying to pull my miniscule knowledge of English out of my head to talk to people, but I also couldn't do so in an environment with a pen in my hand and a test paper in front of me, something I have been accustomed to doing for a long time. I took an exam results that were supposed to place me in a class according to my knowledge of the language. I got into English Beginner Level.

Seeing my classmates communicate in two or even three languages without any evident effort, and not being able to do so myself, was discouraging. How could it be that they knew so much more than me? With these thoughts I pulled out my dictionary and started to work on my English. As weeks went by, I kept discovering something that I hadn't noticed before: my potential.

It is impossible to determine what your future will be. While working on my English in my dorm room I did not suspect that in a few months I would be enrolled in a boarding school in Salzburg, 800 thousand miles away from home. I did not think I would eventually end up transferring to America and staying here for a better part of my life. But I didn't bother myself with these thoughts at that time, because all I cared about was my goal to learn, spend time with other people; have fun.

Upon the completion of the English Summer courses I made my decision to stay.
Now, after almost four years, I have not changed much. The only difference in me now is that this memory constantly reminds me that I am capable of doing anything I set my mind to, be that achieving success, realization of my goals, or even smiling and greeting someone back in a foreign language.