Biology Major, Rebecca Shahrooz ('26) was selected one of the winners of a campus-wide essay contest “Why Do I Learn Languages?” You can read more about the Rebecca and the other winners HERE. Rebecca and the other essay prize winners and honorable mentions will have their work featured during this year’s HFA Days on March 28 on a panel from 10-11 a.m.
As a sneak preview, Rebecca has shared her essay with the biology department:
Finding a Voice Through Language
English:
For the longest time, I believed I was someone who couldn’t write for writing’s sake. I could never keep a diary because I’d pore over the words. Thinking-of-you texts filled me with nerves no matter how much I adored the recipient. Would I say the right thing, and do it beautifully?
When I started learning another language, I began to see that writing anything at all is better than being afraid of our own pens. I could make grammatical mistakes and vocabulary slip-ups, and people would listen to my ideas nonetheless. And what I wrote never had to be utilitarian — when we get comfortable with language, we have a vessel to voice anything from a shopping list to a love of plums to our rawest selves.
This is just to say
to be is to express.
While my ideas still don’t flow like water, now I see that anything can be a muse for mental poetry. I’m struck by motif, metaphor, and meter that sings in places. With this nascent appreciation for the creative, I wonder how I ever lived without it.
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Spanish:
Durante tantos años, creí que era alguien que no podía escribir por escribir. Nunca logré tener un diario porque me obsesionaba con el léxico. Hasta los mensajes de texto más sencillos me llenaban de nervios, sin importar el cariño que sentía por el destinatario. ¿Diría lo correcto? ¿Lo haría bien?
Cuando empecé a aprender otro idioma, poco a poco me di cuenta de que escribir cualquier cosa es mejor que temer a la voz creativa. Podía cometer un sinfín de errores de gramática y vocabulario, y la gente me escuchaba de todos modos. Es más, lo que escribía nunca tuvo que ser exclusivamente pragmático. Cuando nos acostumbramos al lenguaje, poseemos un vehículo para expresar cualquier idea que queramos — ya sea una lista de compras, el amor por las ciruelas o nuestro carácter más sincero.
Esto es solo para decir
que ser es expresarse.
Aunque mis ideas todavía no fluyen como el agua, ahora veo que cualquier cosa puede servir de musa para la poesía mental. Me impresionan los motivos, la metáfora y la poesía cuya métrica casi canta. Con este aprecio naciente por lo creativo, me pregunto cómo pude vivir sin ello.