The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXX

Julia VierIa
Michael Andrews, Teacher
Barnstable Intermediate School
The sound of the teacher talking and I couldn’t understand. Kids trying to
help me talk to them. The unworkable math and everything being so hard.
Grades going downhill, and me thinking it’s impossible.
I showed courage the day I moved to the USA in 2018. Since I was little, I had
never received a bad grade. However, it was one of my biggest fears. When I
moved to the USA, I had to learn English and work hard for every good grade
I received. I am from Brazil, and everything is different there - the way we do
math, the language we speak.
It all began when I went to school in America. My first impression was
amazing, but the second week I wanted to throw myself inside a hole and
never get out. My eyes were filled with tears every night and my grades were
not good anymore. I had to choose if my mind and I were going to try harder
or just pretend school isn’t important. I decided I would work harder. The first
three weeks weren’t easy. My head was down all the time, and I didn’t care if
my parents said everything was going to be okay. It didn’t feel that way.
In 2019, during fourth grade, I decided I wasn’t doing enough. I studied
harder and my grades started to improve again. I pulled myself back up and
smiled with joy again. I trusted my parents when they said, “Julia, everything
will be okay.” Even though sometimes it still gets hard, I always try to push
myself to work harder.
Now I know that if I want something, I have to work hard to earn it. At the
end of fourth grade, everything went well. I graduated from my English
Language Learner class. I was very proud of myself, but I couldn’t yell
or jump because I was in class; we stayed quiet so the people that hadn’t
graduated wouldn’t feel bad. I remember how it felt not to move on, and I
showed that for my peers.
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