Why I chose to study Japanese

I decided to study Japanese because my mother is from Japan and I spoke it as a child.  However, I grew up in New York and my family stopped using it in the house when I was still young so I do not remember how to speak it.  I love the country of Japan and whenever I visit, I always wish I spoke the language.  I am excited to improve my Japanese so I can better communicate with my family members that still live in Japan.  I am also excited to learn how to read and write in Japanese, though this is something that I have found difficult in the first couple of weeks.  No matter how slow I write, or how hard I try to be as precise as possible, the hiragana characters never turn out to look like the ones I am copying.  Hopefully this will become easier with practice!