I am an L2 learner of Spanish. I started when I was 10 and fell in love with the language and the many cultures of Spanish-speakers, especially because I had caring teachers from Ecuador and Venezuela. I did not study Spanish in college (partly because I am Indian and people would make rude comments as to why I was fluid in Spanish but could not speak Hindi, as if Brown people are only allotted one language and that I were somehow less for not having grown up with a heritage language–as a side note those comments helps me understand the shame or other complex feelings my HLL students may feel about their Spanish). I lived in Cajamarca, Peru for a year through a Fulbright fellowship, where I taught English and volunteered at an education nonprofit for low-income children. Knowing that I had a limit to how much I could offer these students without formal education training, I went back to school through an alternative teaching certification program that placed me in a partner school in a Heritage Language Teaching position. I have fallen in love with HLT and want to make it a cornerstone of my career and research.