An Assortment of Not-Rights

Most people I know now would be shocked to hear that I was one of those kids that just couldn’t sit still in preschool. I had gone to two different preschools – the first was when I was three, and because I was too rambunctious, a different one when I was four. Nothing truly changed in the course of my life because of this switch in preschools, and to be honest, I don’t think I was even conscious for the first year except for a few glimpses of window sills too tall for me to reach and those yellow & blue slot blocks I would play with in the corner. Oh, and potty time – I remember this because it made me far uncomfortable to pee in front of Ms. Laura (for no actual reason other than that she was often the one putting me in time-out). 

My mother tells me that I was in time-out often because of my inability to understand what people were saying to me. My parents are immigrants, and so it was more custom for me to hear spoken Tamil than English. So, despite being born in northern New Jersey, Tamil was my first language; this would prove to be a problem in preschool. Ms. Laura did not appreciate my boredom during story-time and I’d often get calls home saying I was misbehaving, not talking to anybody, & not listening to anybody. 

The problem eventually resolved itself when I learned English later that year during the summer at camp at the age of 3 and three quarters; I was young and so it didn’t take much to catch up to everyone. I like to think of this as a funny lighthearted story, but also an observation. Now, despite being somewhat reserved, I think I’m outgoing and quite different when I’m speaking Tamil. Will the people that don’t know my language never be able to connect with that side of me? Is this just a case of code-switching? Will I ever run into Ms. Laura at Wegmans and have my moment where I say: “HA! LOOK! I SPEAK ENGLISH NOW!” ???