| The first thing Marcia noticed when she met her tutor, Susan, was her long, beautiful hair. As someone who studied cosmetology with an eye for natural beauty, Marcia wanted to tell Susan how gorgeous her hair was. The only problem was, she had no idea how to say it in English. Marcia Rosales Ceciliano, 34, came to the U.S. from Costa Rica with her husband in 2016. They wanted to study and pursue their passions in America, and Marcia always dreamt of opening her own hair salon. Marcia could already do a balayage blindfolded, but there was still one thing holding her back: her English skills. “I knew that learning English was something I needed to do before I could feel confident behind the chair,” Marcia said. That’s when she found the Adult Literacy League. She started attending English classes at the Kissimmee Library and was eventually matched with her tutor Susan, the one with the lovely auburn hair. “I was the person who was afraid to even say hello,” she said. “At first, I didn’t understand anything and didn’t want to answer back, but my teachers were very patient with me. Little by little, I started to learn.” While she was studying English at the League, Marcia got a job at Ulta Beauty, where she was able to develop her professional and communication skills alike. She purposely took the job at Ulta because she knew she’d have a better chance of practicing her English skills than if she immediately opened her own salon, where her clients would mostly be Spanish-speakers. She worked at Ulta for 3 years, always keeping her ultimate goal of owning her own space in the back of her mind. Just two weeks ago, Marcia made her dream come true. After tons of research and number-crunching, she just opened her very own salon, Marcia’s Looks, here in Orlando at 1210 East Osceola Parkway Suite 202. “It feels so nice to have my own place and grow my own business how I want it,” she said. Marcia feels like she’s on top of the world now, but she still remembers how scared and lost she felt when she first arrived in the U.S. To others in the same position she was in, Marcia says: Keep going. “I meet so many people who are so scared to learn English, and I just tell them to keep working,” she said. “We can be so hard on ourselves, but it’s important to be patient. That’s something we all have to do.” |
