Day 25: The Day I Heard My Own Accent

9 August 2014

Bridge over the River @ JCU

Wednesday I heard my own accent for the first time. I can’t explain how you view yourself differently after such an experience. All my life I’ve grown up thinking that I was “normal” and everyone else spoke differently. Even when I came to Australia, I found it weird that everyone could always pick me out as an American, I just thought they were just really good guessers. But Wednesday evening at Bible Study that all changed. As I was reading a verse aloud, for the first time in nineteen years, my own voice didn’t sound familiar; it sounded foreign. 

The Scenery Here Is Breathtaking!

Ever since then my life seems different. For the the past few days I’ve viewed myself as a foreigner and it’s the weirdest thing ever. It leads me to questions like, who decides what is normal? And, why do people in one country do things one way and those in other countries do things totally different? And even more personally, Why do I do things the way I do? 

Sunset from my College on Campus

Danny Kaye once said, “To travel is to take a journey into yourself.”  It’s a wonderful thing to go searching for something exotic and international, only to find that you are the exotic and international one. That the way you speak is just as fascinating and enjoyable as listening to a British, Caribbean or even Australian accent. It’s like after nineteen years I’m just now discovering myself. I can only compare it to looking into a mirror all your life, and suddenly you see someone totally new. I admit it’s a bit freakish at first, but how exciting, how refreshing to find that the person you thought you knew best is more complicated and intricate than previously thought.