MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

1985 Was the year in which my mom gave birth to her only child, on a September morning around 8:08 am. Clinica Neiva was the place where she began to shape a story that nowadays is proud of being raised among a family of excellent women and a real queen.

My first contact with English was a sunny afternoon, when living at my grandma’s house. My uncle came into the house with this kind of black album that simply caught my attention since the moment I listened to the first track: Enter Sandman. At that precise moment, I began feeling some attraction towards lyrics in English, meanings and everything surrounding the language, in relation to this Black Album.

English ended up being easy for me during my school years, since I liked looking up for meanings, listening while reading the lyrics and understanding as much as possible all the songs I liked.

Not all my experience was a delightful one. When studying at Salesiano school, as a sixth grader, I was just about to flunk my school year due to English. My uncle, the same one gave me the chance of entering this English world, had to show up at the school in order to save my life. Without even thinking about some way out to this problem, he faced the English teacher in charge of mi final grades. The surprise was that my English teacher (a beautiful woman) and my uncle had already met before, since they were teenagers. So a couple of eye blinks later, I was ready to move forward in my path to become the English teacher I am today.

As time was passing by, I developed certain skills (listening and speaking) that led to a stage where I had to represent my school (Claretiano) in and English contest called WHO WANTS TO BE MILLIONAIRE, challenging private and public schools from Huila. I had a nice performance, being in the final four, but unhappy since none of the four took the biggest price: A trip to Cartagena during one week for free. Anyway, I finished high school and entered the University, taking advantage of my English level. I was the fourth in the list out 45 students.

Since my objective was not to be a teacher, I dedicated my time to improve my vocabulary and my two strongest skills: Listening and Speaking. I never liked reading and writing that much. I enjoyed mi University time, taking advantage of those foreign trips, which in my case led me to the United States. Being at camp (my first experience outside of the country) taught me to value my land, my people, my country and my roots from the very first moment I got there.

Being at the States was the first time I really felt I wanted to contribute people to develop their skills in order to value their own land, in my case, people from Huila and Colombia in general. I really liked the fact that every student working and learning with me, could understand the importance of valuing their native country and exploring their own department before falling in love with a foreign place.

After being at the States, which was in 2006, I continued with my studies, graduating on May 15, 2009. I was already working in some English Private Institutions, widening my experience and learning as much as I could. In 2010 got my first official job, having an amazing experience since I learned a lot form tiny mistakes that built up the experience I have today. In 2013 I began working with the government, waiting for my final stage of accepting an official Job after going through the evaluation process.

 Working in Palermo, La Plata, Tesalia and now, in Paicol with the government, has given me a wide range of elements to acquire the basic experience to change my students’ world. I like pushing them to follow their dreams in what their likes are. Besides this, joining the Master’s Program at Surcolombiana University has allowed me to improve mi view of how to approach my students. This wider view of the teaching and learning process of English is facilitating my life nowadays, since English stopped being my job, turning into being my life and my passion.