bear with me

So.... I'm finally finished my personal statement for my application to be a Cal bear. Woohoo! Here's the opening paragraph of one of my essays, about why I've chosen to major in linguistics:

“Thula sizwe, ungabokhala…” A lone voice sounds the start of a familiar Zulu chorus: “be quiet nation, don’t cry.” I join in a cappella with the rich African voices around me at our weekly Sunday service. Growing up in South Africa, a country of eleven official languages, it feels only natural to pursue a major in linguistics. I grew up in a small rural community, with my father fluent in Zulu and my grandfather frequently serving as a Zulu translator. I too had picked up some of the language in the day-to-day business of the farm, so when our schools were desegregated in my freshman year of high school I surprised my new black friends with the words I had learned. Lunchtimes were spent laughing together as I showed them what I knew in a bid to learn more. This innate curiosity coupled with living in foreign places has caused my growing desire to delve into the study of language.