…I am reintroducing myself to you.
Why?
First of all because I like YOU!
Let me explain.
A few days ago I had a few minutes on the phone with fabulous Jen from CraftOmaniac.
Don’t you love her?
I do!
I had the chance to meet her for the very first time and share a wonderful girls night out with her yesterday.
I am so lucky… I know. I had a blast!
Here we are doing some shopping last night!
OK … lets go back to before we met.
After… I don’t know, a few minutes on the phone this is what she said:
{ Keep in mind that she had NEVER heard my voice before… }
“Oh, my GOSH! You have an accent!”
I had mentioned before that if you could hear me speak you will hear an accent when I talk,
but I think no one is prepared to know how I really sound.
How do I sound?
I sound like me.
{ one year old }
I was born on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean… In a small island call Lanzarote,
near to the North West Coast of Africa.
I spent the first 21 years of my life there.
A while ago believe it or not I was a little six years old girl that loved to play,
to spend long summers in the beach and dream BIG DREAMS!
{ school picture }
As a teenager if you asked me how did I imagine America
I would have probably described a scene of Bay Watch.
{ Sorry that was the closest thing to Google Earth back then }
My answer would had been something like this…
“Everyone wears red swimming suits and people don’t know how to swim that well…”
But what do you expect from a 12 year old…
I also spent my 80s in my little island… without an “accent” but listening for the very first time to tourists that had one 😉
And heck yeah with a Madonna attitude…
{ Los Carnavales! }
And before I knew I was 18 still rocking my wave!
I was all grown up loving the fact that I knew my world perfectly,
every street and every door…
every ocean and every shore…
every remote place of that small island that for so long I called home…
One day however I woke up and I realized I was in love!
In love with a man that had an American accent and go figure but he was in love with a girl that had a Spaniard one.
What a pair!
Yes… we got married and shared bellies.
{ My mon and dad with me at 6:00am, the morning that my handsome Devin was born }
And this same image repeated itself four times 😉
{ 6:30 am on my way to the Hospital with Mimi}
I am a blessed woman!
{ in the Hospital just minutes after our Mimi was born }
… Somewhere between those bellies something happened.
I realized that I had a new home and that somehow I was the only one with an accent now.
He didn’t have one anymore…
Confession Time:
I was back then a 20 something year old sad child!
For the longest time I hated my accent.
{ Can you believe it? }
It bothered me that I couldn’t speak PERFECTLY, that people could notice that I was from some place BUT not here.
I hated being different and I felt perhaps for the very first time afraid to speak.
I remember one day crying like a little girl inside of the bathroom of my first job here.
I had been in the USA for a few month and I felt like an idiot,
I could not communicate, I could not express myself freely,
I felt my accent and language was a thorn in my life and I hated it…
Between those tears of frustration and anger the memory of my grandfather came into my mind
and like a whisper inside of my soul his wisdom came to me:
“Desirée… why are you crying?
Don’t you see what you are doing?
Don’t you see that you sound just like me?
Like your mother…
{ my mom and I }
Like your roots…
{ my grandmother ( abuela ), my mom, me and my Saydi… Four Generations! }
Like your island…
You sound like you!
{ me }
I love this picture above because that is actually what happend.:
I opened my arms and my heart to my new accent!
I share this with you because I have noticed that so many of us have an “accent”.
Yes we do!
Some you can hear like mine… others you can see, like… a birth mark.
Some other accents we hide so well that we don’t allow anyone to see them for fear to be judged or to stand out.
The beautiful thing about our accents
is that if you really think about it Abuelo was right…
It makes you YOU and a anchor to those that you came from.
So I have an invitation for all…
LOVE YOUR ACCENT!
Love your YOU-niqueness!
Embrace it, share it, celebrate it… and hate will become love,
tears will become laughter, insecurity will become personality and fear will become courage.
And those around you will love you for who you are
instead of for how you look or sound.
I promise YOU!
Thank You Jen my Sweet Friend for a great evening!
Desirée
{ with an accent}
Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful post with us, Desirée!
I am so glad you got to embrace and learned to love your accent. I am sure it sounds great and just like YOU! 🙂
When I first went to the US for one year in high school (when I was 16), I didn’t know much English but what they taught us in school. I had never really spoken a word to anyone but my teacher. For the first two months I refused to talk (just the necessary). I would just listen and absorb. I was just too scared of speaking, making mistakes and having too much of an accent. After two months of listening, I finally broke free from that feeling. And now, a lot of times people can’t even tell I’m not from the US.
But I know, the longer the hubby and I stay in Germany again, the stronger my accent will grow. But I’m okay with that. I learned to love the way I talk! 🙂
Lots of besos, Desirée!
Vanessa
Love this post! Now I wanna hear your voice! 🙂
I would love your accent! Love this post!
Debbie
Desiree, I’m so sad you had a hard time about your accent, and so glad you embraced it finally! I personally LOVE accents, I find them interesting, soothing sometimes, tuneful, romantic. My problem is I am english and lived in the UK all my life, now in my fifties I live in Canada were time after time I’m told how lovely my accent is. what’s the problem you ask. I can’t hear it, I don’t notice it…it’s just plain old me! It’s not pretty, romantic or tuneful to me…it’s just well, ordinary! How strange. And even stranger is that I have gotten so used to Canadian accents that when someone british comes on the TV I notice them and think it sounds odd…but it still doesn’t sound like me haha!
Your Madonna outfit made me laugh out loud….because i remember dressing the same way! But on a serious note, I hate that you felt stupid or badly about yourself because you sounded different when you got here. It bothers me how so many people can treat others as somehow lesser just because they are different. I hope that didn’t happen to you, but I know it happens to a lot of people who are new here. I wish our country could be more welcoming and it’s people could realize that we are all citizens of the same world.
Stacy
So great to know more about you. I’m definitely jealous. I used to fake accents because I wanted one so bad. Though I wasn’t any good at it. Ha! You’re a beautiful woman, Desiree, who (I’m sure) has a beautiful accent. Lovely post!
What a sweet post..love that you have embraced your ‘acento’…I’m also a Spaniard and can relate to feeling insecure about having an accent especially when I was younger…. Now my kiddies and hubby make fun of it and I laugh along with them….que lindo mensaje…gracias ! Xo
Lu
Lucy,
What part of España are you from?
Thanks so much for sharing this! I definitely needed this today. It’s always such a hard thing to learn to embrace who you are, flaws and all. But it can be done 🙂
Maranda,
Thank you for leaving a comment. Have a sweet Sunday!
Desiree, I really enjoyed getting to know you better with this post! I actually already imagined your voice with an accent, because I knew you were from the Canary Islands. So I read your posts with an accent in my head! Is that strange? Anyway, I wish I could meet you in person like Jen…jealous!
I love your new blog header too! :0)
That is so cool Robin! I love it!
Hello Desiree!I just found your blog yesterday in vintage revivals blog crush linky party.. And I am so thrilled to meet u through your blog. You wete a beautiful baby and gorgeous women. I appreciate learning your story thanks for sharing. Its a lovely life. My mothers and grandparents are Campbells(Irish and scottish) and my Dads family is from mexico.I immediately text my sister telling her to check out your cute blog and Campbell table. She loved it as much as I did! I was raised in Ohio and my father died when I was in 4th grade and he taught us very little spanish. However all my family on his side speak very fluent spanish . It makes me sad that I did not learn more. I think accents are so sexy and you have a blessing in your tongue, in your heart, in your smile in your face and in your hands I am looking forward to being a follow from now on!Your joy shines through your posts and inspires me! My boyfriend keeps telling me to start my homework as I have been stalking your blog sinve 10:30am and its now 1:02pm haha! Have a wonderful day!
Melanie,
You made my day.
How wonderful it is to meet new friends through my blog.
Welcome to The 36th AVENUE!