I moved between 2 countries and languages as a teen. I got very good at proving myself.

joecicak/Getty Images I attended high school in both Spanish and English after moving between countries. My Dominican transcripts led one school to automatically place me in ESL. Being underestimated made me determined to become undeniable in English. There's a specific dread that comes from not knowing if the words in your head are the right ones in that language. I lived inside that fear, not of a school test , but of speaking in class and having the wrong language come out, or the right one come out wrong. I was born in the Dominican Republic . My parents divorced when I was 1, and left for the US, independent of each other, while I stayed behind in my maternal grandparents' care. At 6, my mother came back for me, remarried, with a new baby, and my legal documents.