My last story for IQ English. As always, I’m going to introduce myself. My name is Melanie.
I’m 15 years old and this is my last presentation for Planet English/IQ English. As always, I’m
going to tell you a story.
My dad always had the American dream, and for him, it was difficult to go to the USA and
then come back. That’s why he decided if he would have kids, he would like to have them in
the USA. So that’s the reason why I was born there. But we had to move because living in
Phoenix, Arizona was difficult for my mom and dad, so we went back to Tlaxcala. If you are
a parent and you had your kids in the USA, you might want them to live there and learn the
language. So my parents wanted me to learn the language. For a long time, my mom and I
were looking for a place where I could learn English. I visited Harmon Hall, Angloidiomas,
etc., and then one day my mom brought me to Planet English. The first thing that I saw and
liked was the way it’s decorated, so I told my mom, “I think this is the one, Mom. I’m really
excited to learn English.”
The person who helped me to join Planet English is my grandfather. He was really interested
in me learning English. At those times, he always told me, “You need to learn the language
of your other country.” But nobody would think that as soon as I started the course, a
pandemic also started. For me, it was really hard to learn English in online classes because
I’m a person who gets distracted very easily. But even though I was like that, I tried to be
frequently in my online classes. And nothing could ever be possible without my mom
because she was the only one who supported me, and she was always behind my back,
forcing me to pay attention and be in the classes. (To be honest, I was sick and tired of
English.)
After 2 years, the pandemic was almost over, and I had the chance to return to in-person
classes.The next event happened in the year 2022.
When I was in book 2.
I had to go to Dallas,I didn’t want to go because I barely spoke English,even though I had to
join all my English classes online. It was really tough. After a while, I started to get used to
Dallas and learn a lot of things, but I had to go back to Mexico.
My life had returned to normal. The next few months weren’t interesting. I was slacking in my
English classes. I didn't take it seriously. One day, my mom told me that we had to go back
to Dallas because my sister needed surgery. When she told me about the appointment for
the surgery, I was shocked.the surgery was on July 26th, three days after my quinceañera,
and we had to be there on July 20th because before the surgery, my sister had to get
checked to see if everything was good.
The only thing that I wanted for my quinceañera before knowing about my sister’s surgery
was going to Spain and spending more than a week there. After knowing about it, I was
really sad because I didn’t want to spend my special day in Dallas, but a trip is a trip. So,
during those days, I was angry, but not at my sister. I was annoyed at the world. And I
always repeated to myself, “Why me? Why not somebody else? Why do I always have to be
strong in moments that I don’t want to be strong?”
And when it was my birthday, I didn’t want to do anything. In the afternoon, I took a walk and
sat down on the old chair that was there while drinking a Coca-Cola and saying to myself
that I was acting really selfishly. But I knew that it was my special day, but it didn’t feel like
my special day. I stayed there until the sky started to get darker. Three days later, my sister
got the surgery. During the surgery, I literally had a breakdown in the waiting room,I felt really
bad for acting really selfishly, but I tried that nobody noticed it because if i was like this, just
try to imagine how my mom was. I didn’t want her to feel more stressed, but as always,
everything ended up well at the surgery.
That’s when I realized that a pretty dress, a car, a big party, or a trip doesn’t matter. The only
thing that was important for me at that time was my sister and if she was feeling okay. That’s
what really matters, your family's health. After that, I returned to Mexico with all the
motivation to finish my Book Three, and I finished it in four months, and then I finished the
next book at the same time. It wasn’t easy. I had to come here from 4 to 8. I remember that
sometimes I was extremely exhausted and I was trying to not fall asleep. Once, I remember
doing Pronunciation with Teacher Alfredo, but I couldn’t even read the book because I wasn’t
seeing well. All those good memories will always stay in my heart forever.Thank you for
taking the time to listen to my last story.
