I applied and was accepted to both UCLA and Berkeley, and will be attending Berkeley in the fall as an English major. I grew up with three windows into the world: Spanish, Russian, and English. This unique blend of languages shaped how I understood people and culture from an early age - and I am immensely grateful to have grown up with three such powerful lenses through which to see and understand the world. English was my third language. My Eastern European heritage and my mom’s insistence that her fluency in Spanish would not end with her filled my early upbringing with Slavic syllables and lyrical Spanish consonants. This blend of tongues introduced me to the diverse emotional landscapes, histories, and perspectives embedded in words. Each language exposed me to a different worldview, the ability to resonate with various cultural experiences, and an understanding of how the same concept can be expressed in multiple ways. But what makes me grateful for my knowledge of languages is that it has enabled me to connect with a larger group of people on a profound and meaningful level. The face that someone makes when they realize that you share their first language is engraved in my brain. There is truly no faster way to dissipate the barrier between yourself and a stranger than by sharing the same form of communication. The excitement that paints my dad's face every time he hears someone who shares his accent, and my grandparents' regular visits to their favorite european store, encapsulate what it means to feel at home in a language that carries your identity. I learned early on that speaking someone's language isn’t about knowing the words, but understanding and respecting the context in which someone interprets the world. When the Russian-Ukrainian War started, and I used my Russian fluency to work as an ESL tutor for Ukrainian refugees, I felt the power of language. Even though my experiences and those of the children I was tutoring were starkly different, the knowledge that they were being taught by someone who spoke their language created an easy and comfortable environment for us to communicate with one another. Even though I had never set foot in their country, we found common ground in our values, family dynamics, and experiences - all through language. I spent many Zoom calls laughing at cultural anecdotes, listening to the hardships that my tutorees had persevered through, and even forming a close friendship with my very first tutoree from freshman year- Kate. Through these three windows, I also found a passion for words and the power that they can carry. I believe that my desire to be an English major and my passion for the literary arts stem from growing up with the richness that comes with speaking multiple languages. I could not be more grateful for my parents for teaching me Russian and Spanish while I was young, and for the breadth of human experience that I would not have otherwise encountered.