My Auto-Biography
" My mother told me that my first words were “up please”, something simple for any child to ask- except I was the ripe age of 9 months old. I have always had a complex vocabulary, according to my mother I was able to say 26 words by the time I was a year old. Since I was unable to walk yet, I suppose I attempted to let my mother know exactly what I wanted and needed. My mother likes to relate my early talking with the fact that I could read basic reading books with ease by the time I was two. Needless to say that language is possibly the biggest part of communication. Now, at 15 years old, I speak multiple different “languages”. I define language as something that is spoken by a group of people, so by my definition there are languages within languages.
The first language I learned was English. There are many different variations of English in my life. Proper English, improper english, slang, Philly Slang, New England Slang, but the form of english I am most fluent in besides English, is basketball. Yell out “backdoor cut” into a crowd and watch how many people turn around. By the time I was 6 I could watch basketball, speak basketball, sign basketball and do scoreboards. I have basketball in my blood, its not a second nature to me.
In a bigger way New England flows through my veins. The New England terminology is my first language. I spent the first five years of my life in Amherst, Massachusetts. About two and a half hours west of Boston, in Amherst the accent is a little thinner, the English is more proper, there is no difference between the inner city accent and the suburban accent because Amherst is more of a farming town. I still have a faint New England accent to show my roots.
I remember when I first moved to Philly, I was five years old and beginning my kindergarten year at Norwood Fontbonne Academy, a Catholic School in Chestnut Hill. I walked down the stairs in my favorite polo dress and my hair in one ponytail and hopped in the car after what seemed like thousands of pictures from my overly emotional mother. I never understood the tears, I mean, I did go to preschool for three years before that. We rolled into the construction filled school in our Ford Explorer with the Massachusetts license plate. Nervousness ran through my whole body. I sat down on the “magic carpet” when we went around the circle to say our names and where we are from. When it was my turn I sat up straight, head held high, and said “My name is Gabrielle Aahrnold and I am from Amhuuuuurst Massachusetts.” Naturally my teachers were concerned that I wasn’t developing my phonics correctly. Fast forward 10 years later with a little “Hooked on Phonics” and “speech therapy”, I speak with little to no accent.
My accent was one of the things that defined me. Amherst is in my blood. My accent made me different from everyone else. I stood out from the crowd. I wasn’t just a Philly girl, I was an Amherst girl, and damn proud of it. I still am an Amherst girl... but a Philly girl as well. My accent was a conversation starter, something distinct, something beautiful. That’s the beauty of language, regardless of how your voice sounds, where you are and who you’re with. There will always be someone who will listen to your voice and instantly connect with you. Their voice rubs off on you.
I began attending Germantown Friends School September of 2003. My vocabulary from the time I was very young has always been vaster than what was the expectation. Over time I began to talk more and more like my peers, we began our own language. “Obvi” began to slowly creep into my “all the time vocabulary, annoying my parents and pushing my cousins to call me “white girl”. My aunt began to taunt my cousins and I when she saw us talking, “And I’m like, and he’s like, and I’m like and he’s like”. She says this to this day. I’ve changed schools so the taunting hasn’t been as severe since I picked up a majority of my other cousin’s vocabulary when I began attending Science Leadership Academy in the fall of 2011.
When I began attending Science Leadership Academy, I learned a new type of English, Philly slang. Most of my friends at GFS were from the outskirts of Philly, we had our own slang. “That’s dead” slowly began to creep into my vocabulary so much so that my mother has begun saying it.
I love that my language reflects all the places I have been in life. Amherst, Philly, Norwood, SLA. My language is like one of my style, something that is visible always and represents who I am to the fullest. "https://vimeo.com/58413181
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