The catholic religion involves mass every Sunday and many forms of prayers. Such a form of prayer is called a rosary. This is when a group of people get together and do 50 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers. This process makes it way around for everyone to get their turn. Though the people that I do this session with my family. They only pray in Spanish. Having struggled to fully grasp the Spanish language I had felt that I was incapable of being able to properly communicate with them to my full extent as I would in English. Even to the point that I may not be able to practice my own faith. Especially in this prayer for after we complete the rosary we do some readings. Those readings had made themselves my worst enemies. Every single time I had attempted to read one I had stuttered and struggled to even pronounce the simplest of words. This got to the point where I no longer had the gull to even ask to read. How can I practice my faith with my family, if I can’t even understand the language? Though this will change on one Christmas Eve. 

      We had been praying the rosary everyday for a week. Christmas Eve was the last day of our praying. We finished the rosary and then did further readings. My aunt had just finished one reading. The next reading is called the Litany. Where one reads a statement and the rest respond in unison. This was about a 5 minute reading. I had never attempted to read this since I believed it would add another 30 minutes to the already 45 minutes we had been praying. My aunt asked the room “Who wants to read the Litany?” Everyone sat in complete silence. They must have felt that it was too much of a reading to do and would rather someone else do it. There I sat thinking that same thing even though I had no intention of reading, but all of a sudden my mother coughed. “Why not give it a try?”  I looked to my right and then looked to my left.  Full well knowing there was no one to my left. “Who me?”” I could never”.  Then my grandma and cousin looked my way. “Just try it, we are waiting”. They knew of my awful reading yet still encouraged me. “Come on, if I read we will be here till midnight.” “Then we will wait along with you.” “Giving it a try then never doing so is better”. My mom’s words spun around in my head. 

       This surely can’t go on forever. I must try someday. Why not today? “Fine I’ll do it, don’t say I didn’t warn you”. Once I looked at the page I was overwhelmed. Taking in a deep breath I said the first word. This was simple as I had remembered some words from previous attempts of reading. Then after one sentence I had froze. There was no way I could read this next one. My mom said “ Take your time no pressure”. Then going back to the page, I gave my best shot. I slowly broke the word down into parts. Having read many books in English I obviously knew how to prince complex words. Just for some reason I had finally come to realize how to do the same in Spanish. Just in that moment where everyone had encouraged me to attempt this reading I broke down the wall that was holding me back. That wall was myself. I then finished the litany with no struggle at all. The words came had come out of my mouth with such ease that I felt I had become fully fluent. When I looked up everyone around me had a smile on their face. “We knew you could do it”. From then on I had always asked to do readings. Allowing me to understand attempts and failing are better then never giving it a try was better.