Johanel Perez                                                                                          09/24/2025

ENGL 110 Freshman comp.

                                                 “Unknown Talents”

In my second year of early college, during the spring of 2025, I walked into my first class: Speech, it was an enormous room full of chairs with a stage in the middle just for everyone to lay eyes on you. I didn’t know how much this class was going to impact me. When I first entered the classroom, I saw a tall lady who looked very serious. At first, I felt fear not only because of her  but also because of the subject itself. Knowing myself, I had always been afraid to speak in front of people I didn’t know. That fear grew stronger because of my accent, which sometimes made it hard for others to understand me.

In the past, many people had pointed out my accent, often telling me it was difficult to understand. Some even laughed at the way I spoke. Coming from the Dominican Republic and having Spanish as my first language, it has been a challenge to change my accent when speaking other languages like English. I’ve been trying to improve it, but at this point, it feels like a part of me.

Going back to that day, the first day of school, the professor told us the class was going to be challenging. She even warned students to opt out if they felt that public speaking would be too difficult for them. At that moment, I felt like giving up before even starting. I thought about how embarrassing it would be if people laughed at me again or if I struggled to express myself in front of the whole class.

But deep down, I also felt something else: determination. I reminded myself that I was here to learn, to grow, and to challenge my fears. Instead of walking out, I decided to stay. That decision marked the beginning of a journey that not only improved my confidence but also changed the way I viewed myself.

As the weeks went by, I faced many challenges, not only about my voice trembling with fear. But my body, avoiding eye contact and not being able to control what I feared the most, my accent. Even though I felt like I was doing horrible in this class, my teacher told me that I had nice characteristics of a speaker, like: the volume of my voice and how I would smile all the time, and having a firm pose and never letting it go. But she never pointed out my accent, the thing that I feared the most. Because of that I started to have way more confidence.

Little by little, I noticed small improvements. My classmates began to listen more closely, and instead of laughing, many encouraged me. The professor, despite her serious look, turned out to be supportive and gave me advice on how to project my voice and slow down my words.

Through every assignment, I gained a little more confidence. By the end of the semester, I wasn’t just surviving the speeches like I thought I would. I was proud of them. I learned that my accent doesn’t make me less capable, it makes me unique. My fear of public speaking hasn’t completely disappeared, but now I see it as something I can overcome with practice and determination. Now is simpler even though I still feel fear. I can manage it and control that fear to use it as a tool, to express myself and what I’m trying to communicate.

Looking back, I realize that walking into that classroom was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. What once felt like my biggest weakness and fear has now become a source of strength. This experience taught me that challenges can either hold us back or push us forward, depending on how we face them.

By the end of the semester, our professor closed the class with powerful and encouraging words: “I’m proud of you all. I see you all as future leaders. Thank you for being part of my class.” Hearing those words gave me a deep sense of accomplishment and pride, because they came from someone who had guided us with patience and wisdom throughout the semester. Not only I, but also my peers, gained many valuable lessons from this remarkable teacher, whose influence continues to shape the way I think and act in my daily life.

What made this professor truly stand out was the respect and openness she showed toward all of us. She never judged our different accents, our grammar, or the unique ways in which we spoke English. Instead, she celebrated those differences and reminded us that language should not be a barrier to expressing our intelligence or creativity. She made it clear that even though we came from diverse backgrounds and communicated in different ways, we were all equally capable of sharing meaningful ideas, and those ideas deserved to be heard, appreciated, and respected.