I am good at French. I can say that with certainty. I took French, I excelled at it, and I was marvelous. I wanted to learn outside the classroom. I applied for a highly rigorous Full-Immersion French Academy the summer before my senior year, and I got it. I was accepted. This academy wanted my talent. I felt golden.

When something makes you feel golden, it’s contagious. Instead of feeling a temporary rush, you want to be golden all the time. So I joined the French Club, and French Honor Society. In making Bouches de Noëls, I certainly felt golden. And when speaking of my experiences at the academy to younger peers at my high school, I felt golden, sharing thoughts about the subject I love to people who shared my interest. More recently, in New Orleans, a bilingual school was hosting “La Fête Française”and while watching a French trio, I observed one man who was most definitely golden. His eyes were closed and he swayed on his wooden stool as people rushed by, seeming not to notice. I watched him for a good fifteen minutes and not once did he open his eyes. Playing Edith Piaf on his accordion was his golden moment. I was so jealous of that.

And then a personal encounter helped encase my soul with gold. I work at a Swim Retail Shop in McLean, and a biracial couple came into my store. The man started ranting in a huff,

“ I am looking for a suit; a suit not made for elephants!” I laughed and noticing his French accent, I said “OHH mais monsieur, on a les maillots pour les filles minces aussi! Pas seulement les elephants!”

He laughed and looked relieved. It was clear that his English was not so good, and that his wife was skinny and needed a fitted suit. She was also pregnant. So when she described to me her perfect suit, I led her to the one I felt would be best. A Nanette Lepore monokini. She looked at it and her face said something I could never translate in a written form. All she said was  “ Merci, tu es vraiment magnifique.”

I think it was a melange of the suit and the ease with which she found it and the common language we spoke that evoked her smile. And how similar we felt. When you share something common such as language in a place where it is not found so often, it is really something. I think the smile she gave me when she looked at the suit was something like gold. She had a shining effect. She tried it on and loved it. The store was busy and I was helping someone else by the time she was being rung up. So her husband, made a special trip to the backroom to say “Merci, parmi tous les elephants on a trouvé quelqu’un qui peut nous diriger!”

I laughed a happy happy laugh. I was golden. Je etais faite d’or. Now I’ve noticed some things, all my golden moments have occurred with French people, French language, or French related movies (Midnight in Paris directed by Woody Allen stole my heart). I have then concluded that the golden version of myself is the French one. So now I know, I will study in France, find work in France, and live my golden life in France.

Quand je suis Francaise, Je suis faite d’or.

By Sarah Estryn