Growing up in the city was very fun and it allowed me to mature quickly as well as learn things on my own from a very young age. As a five year old in kindergarten, I don’t remember much besides writing “we” as “Wii,” like the game console, or speaking as if I was learning a new language. Up until this point, I feel as if kids spoke pretty simply, but there were a few exceptions. There were these peculiar words, words you wouldn’t find in the dictionary but ones that I had either heard so many times in context like “mad,” or some I just had no idea what they meant. 

There was one instance in third grade that I remember being a very crucial moment in shaping my vernacular and the way I socialize in everyday life. One of the  slang words I had absolutely no idea what it meant was “deck”, or to “deck” someone, meaning to hit them in the head essentially. I found out because I was in a conversation with two of my classmates and one of them was explaining to us a story where he had seen two people fighting. The other kid who was listening to the story with me, proceeded to ask what deck meant. The kid explaining the story had looked at me, asked me if I knew what deck meant, and asked if the other kid was serious. I was pretty reserved back then so I said yes, knowing very well I had no idea what he was talking about, and somehow got away with it. I continued to let the kid telling the story just be astonished that the other classmate had no idea what it meant and eventually he explained it to him and unbeknownst to him, me as well. 

Another experience that molded my language and the way I write really was moving to upstate New York, specifically, Cooperstown. I had moved in the beginning of my freshman year of highschool, against my own feelings on moving and it was a complete shock. I had moved from one of the greatest cities on Earth, to a place where you could sell cow manure every fifteen minutes. My very first day of school, I was really nervous and I was waiting to receive my schedule in the cafeteria, when I saw a few kids walk in with confederate flags on their shirts. Now I already knew I had moved and there was a culture shock to be expected, but that really surprised me. I had thought that you would see things of that nature only in the south and that it was very exaggerated.    

Fortunately, there was one kid from the city that had moved up that same year, and we could use our lingo in between each other but besides that, there was basically no use for it. With no use for it besides the occasional, “deadass,” upstate definitely made me speak with a bit more annunciation and a bit more proper. Occasionally I’d be even embarrassed to use slang around certain people because you could tell that they were judging you the slightest bit. This definitely changed the way I speak but it also translated to my writing; I believe my writing became a bit more sophisticated. My language had clearly shifted to how the people upstate talk but I still hadn’t lost touch with my roots.

Although my time upstate wasn’t too long, as I moved back in my junior year of high school, I had realized my language had changed. Even though the reasons why I had changed my speech weren’t ones I shouldn’t have cared about, I still did. When I moved back to the city I realized that I had really started to like the way I spoke. Not that I thought that I was better than anyone but I realized I had a dynamic way of speaking. I really thrived when I came back and felt as if my vernacular allowed me to have certain opportunities. In hindsight, I am grateful for moving upstate because it made my speech a bit more proper and now I have a vocabulary that is a bit mixed with more proper English and New York slang, forming my identity.