This article presents the experiences of six bilingual Spanish-English students transitioning from high school to college, highlighting the ways they theorize translation and its relationship to writing and learning. As increased attention to theories of translingualism has established translation as deeply embedded in writing processes, and awareness of the multilingual makeup of college classrooms has further dispelled the "myth of linguistic homogeneity," we are poised to see writing in ways that align more closely to how our students experience language on a daily basis. Student reflections on writing and translation featured in this article contribute to a growing understanding of what I call "translational learning": a process that allows students to develop awareness of differences in languages across contexts, contributes to metalinguistic awareness that allows them to engage with these differences, and builds a broad linguistic repertoire that allows for greater rhetorical dexterity.