In September 1994, I left my homeland of Antigua and Barbuda, in the Caribbean, to attend Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, in the United States. The transition was not easy, as I went from being a top-performing student to an average student who struggled with standardized tests and writing assessments. As an international student, I was often criticized for my poor writing skills, spelling, and sentence structures, but my teachers were unaware that my entire educational experience was based on the British system. In Antigua and Barbuda, students start attending school from the age of two and are taught phonetics, spelling, reading, and writing in "Queen's English," using words such as "metre," "favour," and "colour." Our educational system emphasized the importance of explaining what we were taught, rather than simply selecting correct answers in multiple-choice assessments. As a result, I often struggled with American-style standardized tests that required me to choose the "right" answer. I was also scrutinized for my spelling, which sometimes differed from American English due to my British-based educational background. Nevertheless, with the help of intense tutoring and my determination, I eventually learned the American approach and excelled in college and post-graduate academic pursuits.