English is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. (Accredited Language Services) For some people, speaking English is second nature. However, for others, it is a constant struggle. My story is a little different. To me, English was more than a language; it was a pathway to my dreams and goals. As a kid born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, I believed that English was the most beautiful language in the world. In my mind, people who spoke English made it far in life, or at least that is what I saw in movies. Most of the American movies I watched portrayed people building beautiful homes, families, and lives for themselves.

They were happy and had a happy story; but then I would go to school and see Haitian men, women, and children begging on the side of the road. They did not seem to have lives similar to those in the movies. I automatically associated Americans and English with my dream life; a life with a beautiful home, a strong family, and a good, stable job. I believed that the advantages Americans had against Haitians were that 1) they lived in the United States and 2) they were Americans who spoke English. Therefore, I wanted to live in the States and speak English. Just as Adichie says in the “Danger of a Single Story, “[I made] one story become the only story.”I thought speaking English and being American were the only ways I could achieve my goals. While learning English did change my life forever, I created a false stereotype about it.

As a kid, I kept on telling myself that to become successful in life, I’d have to speak English or be American. This was the lie that I was feeding to myself. Although being American and speaking English has its perks, it is not the only way you can become successful in life. However, at that time in my life, I did not perceive it in that manner.I created my own stereotype about English speakers and Americans. I assumed that if you spoke English or lived in the United States, you would automatically receive the life you wanted.

As Adichie said in “The Danger of Single Story," “the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” I had turned the stereotype about the English language into my truth.I admired people who spoke English. I would look up to them as if they were from a different world; they were the people I wanted to become one day. I disliked the fact that I could only speak French and Kreyol. I thought that if I only spoke French and Kreyol, I would be “stuck” in Haiti. At that time, that seemed like a burden or curse.

I wanted the life the Americans had in the movies: with their adventurous love lives, the dream jobs, the perfect husbands. They had it all figured out and they almost always had a happy ending. I wanted that life. I would watch French movies which portrayed people who lived in apartments, and people who did not have those adventurous love lives. They had office jobs, boring family dinners, and husbands that cheated on their wives.That was not the life I wanted. I was so immersed in my single story that I could not imagine the American lifestyle anywhere but in the United States of America. Due to this false stereotype, I decided that I had to learn English, to achieve that lifestyle.

When I was twelve years old, I decided to teach myself English with the resources I could get access to. I would watch television shows like the O.C. in English and put French subtitles. I would try to listen to American music. I would even try to speak to my cousins in English, without success of course; but I would still try. I was beginning my “English speaking” journey. Then the journey officially began after January 12^th 2010.

On January 12^th 2010, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. That week, my life and perception of English started to change. I had to leave Haiti that same week and move to Miami, Florida. It was what I had wanted my whole life, except it was happening at the wrong time. I thought that if I ever moved to the States, it would have been with my family, over a summer vacation, but that was not the case. For three months, I lived with my uncle, aunt, and cousin whom I was only used to seeing once a year during summer vacation.During my stay, I had to attend a private English-speaking school. In the span of three months, I had to learn how to speak, read, and write English fluently. I also had to accustom myself to American culture. I felt like I had to Americanize myself to fit in.

I was trying to improve my English by doing everything I could to learn English and pass my classes. I would try to express myself solely in English, and if I didn’t know how to say a word, I would Google it or ask my older cousin who spoke English to translate for me. Three months later, in April of 2010, I moved back to Haiti to complete elementary school. The following year, I attended an American school in Haiti called Quisqueya Christian School. Kids would make fun of me because I spoke English with a strong accent, and would make grammatical mistakes.

For example, in 7^th grade, my second year of learning how to speak English, I would say “shwimp” instead of “shrimp”, or I would use my verbs in the wrong tense. I would say “I do my homework last night” instead of “I did my homework last night”, and kids would make fun of me or point out my mistakes to embarrass me. Therefore, I was dedicated to mastering the language and pronunciation. I decided to speak only English; at school, at home, and with friends. I only watched movies, listened to music, and read books in English. I even prayed in English. I turned English into something that was of second nature to me. I even started to think and dream in English. English and the American culture became something more to me than just a language and a culture; they became who I was, what I watched, what I said, what I thought, wanted and how I perceived and portrayed life.

I had perceived English all wrong. I was only looking at it from the movies I watched; from one story and one perspective. It all changed when I got to Middle School. In middle school, I started to read more books, like the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson, The Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, and Sarah Dessen's books. I also traveled around the world and met people from different cultures, like Italians, Spaniards, Egyptians, Dominicans, Rwandans, and more.

From those encounters, I realized that the English language and being American could add some benefits to my life, but they were not all there was to life and success. I had gotten so wrapped up in my own bubble of English speakers and "Americanizing" myself that I forgot where I came from: Haiti. I was slowly learning that you did not have to be American to be successful.I learned that there were many Haitians who could barely spoke English, yet had very successful lives in Haiti. Some were even happier than the Americans I would see in movies. One Haitian, Anthony “Titony” Bennett, made me come to this realization.

A family friend, Anthony “Titony” Bennett, a young Haitian entrepreneur, started a company called “Marche Titony” which sold goods, like food products and hygiene products to the low-income social class in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. He spoke English; but to sell to the Haitian people, and the Haitian market, he would have to speak in Kreyol, our language.He was even nominated as Haiti’s entrepreneur of the year. Haitians like him reminded me that English was not the only way one could become successful in life.

My English-speaking journey has taught me a lot. I learned that there were many countries in the world, like Spain, Italy, France, the Bahamas, Greece, and many more, where you could build a family and have a successful life or career. School, class, and family trips helped me understand this as I visited different countries and encountered various cultures.

As I traveled to different States in the U.S., I came to the realization that there were poor people in America; people who lived in shared accommodations and had miserable lives. In some neighborhoods, I could see poverty, and that’s when it hit me. I realized that poverty did not only occur in Haiti. Just like in Haiti, there was racism in the United States. The most shocking news was that there were people who spent their whole lives as Americans, spoke English and never reached their goals. This realization pushed me to want to learn more about my country and what it was made of.

Being Haitian is a not a curse; it is a blessing. I learned to love myself and to love my heritage, and where I came from, by asking different sources about their knowledge of Haiti. I asked my aunt, Danielle St Lot, a former executive director of Haiti’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its former Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, about Haiti and what it was composed of. I worked in community service, heard different Haitian’s stories, asked around, read books, and gathered as much information as I could about my country and my culture. I learned how to dance “Folklore,” a Haitian/African Dance. I learned that even though Haiti has a long way to go; a lot of things to improve and change, it will always be my home.I used to be ashamed of saying I was Haitian because people looked down on Haitians and I did not want to be looked down upon.

We Haitians were thought to live in huts, with pigs, and with no access to technology; but that is wrong. The media only portrayed the negative side of Haiti. They did not portray that we have beautiful homes, with all sorts of animals, from fish to peacocks, waterfalls, beaches, our own dance style (Folklore), mountains, televisions, phones, airplanes and many more. We even have our own language, Haitian Kreyol, which is a beautiful language/dialect that only Haitians understand. It is something that we share; it is our thing, and the fact that we are the only ones who can understand it is amazing and outstanding. It is not something to be ashamed of, but proud.

I had created my own stereotype about English; I believed it was the only pathway to success. I learned that it was not the only pathway to success. It could surely help me, but there were many more ways I could achieve my goals. As I immersed myself in the American community, I realized that like Achibie, I had been seeing it all wrong. I had created my stereotype based on the American movies I watched. I was closed-minded and did not see all that the world had to offer. I was embarrassed of being Haitian and of only speaking French and Kreyol. That all changed once I became an English speaker.

I was exposed to different realities, like the reality that not all Americans live in a safe neighborhood, or have access to food and water every day. I concluded that being a bilingual Haitian was a blessing, not a curse. This stereotype helped me embrace who I was and combat the image that I had created of myself as a Haitian woman who did not speak English. The biggest lessons I learned from this stereotype are that 1) You should always be proud of your heritage and where you come from, and 2) you need to understand that you are your own biggest constraint, or stop sign. You can do anything that you set your mind to, no matter where you come from, as long as you work hard for it.