Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn't find the words for what you want to say? That happened to me big time in my teen years. I was going to study abroad and stay with a family for a summer. I had chosen England because...English-speaking. At the last minute I was switched to Mexico. My foreign language was French. So suddenly I was in a country where my grasp of the language was nonexistent. From my inability to ask my host family where the bathroom was on arrival to my saying si to my Mexican boyfriend and learning the next morning that we were engaged to be married (obviously we didn't) it was quite challenging at times.
It was those experiences my mind flashed back to when I read Arya Shahi's An Impossible Thing To Say. Omid, Shahi's narrator, speaks two languages and feels inadequate in both. When his grandparents move from Iran to join their extended family he struggles with Farsi. But in school he doesn't feel competent in English, especially when he's around a girl he might more than like.
Shortly after his grandparents' arrival 9/11 happens. That night Omid hears his parents discussing the implications for their family. Although it is rarely alluded to after that, it subtly hovers in the background, like when his mother has an encounter with a racist, like when his father's store windows are constantly being broken.
But Omid is about to make a life altering discovery. When the girl he likes and his best friend introduce him to rap he falls in love with its meter and rhythms. Could this be the language in which he's not only competent but fluent?
On a purrrsonal note, we're having another lovely autumn day in central Maine. In a few minutes I'll take the bus to Orono to get my second tattoo. A 🐈 😻 🐈⬛️ 😺 🐱 😸 one of course.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who gave me the birthday money with which I'm paying for this body art.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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