Vox Latina 2019-2020 Vox Latina Fall 2019 | Page 14

Feeling like the most clueless
person in a Latin room
By Elsa Khan
T o be blunt, I am not the best at Latin. I was slower when it came to
translating, conjugating, understanding the endings, word placement,
tenses, and all the other grammatical concepts that tended to fly over my
head during class. I remember my sophomore year of high school: I was
taking Honors Latin 3, the pre-AP Latin course that would prep us for the
rigor and other expectations of AP Latin. I struggled a lot. My friends
would be sitting around me and would seem to have simply just
understood the material, quickly providing the correct answer while I felt
like I was just sitting there stupidly.
I've always enjoyed the language, the community it has behind it, and, of
course, the myths and other stories associated with the classical culture.
My love for this language overpowered my loud insecurities that told me
that I was not as good as my friends, and therefore not good enough.
Everyone around me seemed to know what they were doing! I kept sitting
there taking notes and desperately trying to cram information into my
head so that I could possibly do better than my average test score (which
was not the best). Or I would be at State Convention, and I would feel like
such an idiot when people whip out answers for certamen or on the tests.
It’s hard being surrounded by all these people who seem so much smarter
than you; you tend to always put yourself below them and forget that
you’re still learning, but maybe just not as fast.
"It’s okay to feel like you’re not the best at Latin but
still love it."
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