Happy Birthday, the English language!!!

Have you ever thought about this weird thing that some people can change not just our day but our whole life? One look, even one's silence may have an immense effect on our tomorrow. I guess almost everyone of us has this special person in your life.  Someone who turns a new page of the book of your life...

Today is a big day. Usually people celebrate their own or their friends' birthdays but I'm crazy enough to celebrate the birthday of my English language. Exactly eight years ago a 27-year old  American Peace Corps volunteer changed my life. I still remember that cold foggy October early morning when I first met my first real native speaker friend from the USA.

The day before the arrival of our new English teacher I felt myself super excited. I imagined how I'd say hello to him, how I'd teach him Ukrainian. What I did not imagine in my wildest dreams  was that I would ever speak English myself or make it a part of my life. If someone told me that I'd become a translator in the future, I'd call this person mad. 

This birthday cake was kindly baked for me by my great friend David  Cottrell from the USA! :)


Yeah, I learnt some English at home. My physical challenges did not allow me to attend our village school. However, I somehow felt myself a part of my class I sometimes kept in touch with. I loved diving into books, writing stories and enjoyed my world of dreams. I was somehow afraid of imagining my future, my real tomorrow after finishing my school. I hated to bother myself with such serious thoughts. I  always hoped I'd ever become a student but I really doubted I'd ever make it.

 I didn't know how I could find myself, a girl with hundreds of physical limits, in our 'limited' Ukrainian society. I had real great doubts and fears. One cloudy morning turned my world upside down.


 Now when I look back, I can hardly believe how much my life has changed. No one of us remembers how we were born. We do not remember how it felt like to see the light for the first time. We do not remember how painful it was to breethe in our first portion of oxygen. 

But I am lucky to boast of the fact that I remember the birth of my English. It was also quite painful. But it was also very exciting. When Joel, my dear English teacher and friend from the USA first entered our kitchen I said my first English "hello"...and that's how it started. My sleepless nights, embracing with English dictionaries, enjoying my being "an early bird" to get this amazing opportunity to have breakfast with Joel before he would go to school. I tried to hide how nervous I felt. But soon my awkward feelings turned into fun and a non-stop process of constructing sentences. At first it was composing my 'thoughts' on pieces of paper. Until one day. One spring day when I realized that I could easily speak without any "written scripts"...I felt myself in the seventh heaven. I can't even describe how I really felt. I felt something very special when I first tried to convey Joel's speech into Ukrainian...I felt myself helpful. And for the first time in my life I saw the sense of what I was doing. I felt myself free. Free of any limits. I have got wings. English has become my feet.

I still laugh when I think about the telephone conversation with my former school headmistress Olena Serhiyivna. She asked me "Hey, Dasha! It's time to decide your future. Let me read a list of professions you might be interested in"...and as soon as she read "translator" I said "STOP! I want it! It's where I see myself. Decided"....That's funny because it was the first time I realized what I really wanted from my life. What I really wanted to do. It seemes like I had known it when I first spoke to Joel, but never confessed myself.


I have been breathing, tasting, touching,  dreaming, thinking, smelling, writing and even speaking English for eight years. Sometimes I feel myself stupid, sometimes want to give everything up. BUT what I really don't want is to imagine  my life without the English language...

I am eternally grateful to Joel for changing my life. There is no way I can ever express what Joel really means to me. There is no single day I miss thanking God about Joel. About Joel's kindness to me. About Joel's patience. About his great gift - belief in myself. 

 I adore this power of words I still have to master. I do not know if all my dreams can ever come true, but one of them is real for me now - I help people understand each other. My translated words make people feel and hopefully inspire them to do something good. What could be better? I got my wings. I am free. I am flying. Dictionaries are my fuel. The idioms are my drugs. :D Well, thanks to English I have graduated from the university, obtained my Master's degree, found a job,  and what's the most important - have met many special people who change my life for better every day. I wish I could shout it all over the world "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ENGLISH!" But I'll happily whisper instead "thank you forever"...