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Naraly Aguilar

Ms.Guzman

ERWC

11 October 2019

Personal Narrative #2

Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to

overcome this challenge.How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?

The outcome of a challenge in life determines the growth of a person. Having to deal

with anxiety has been one of my most significant challenges in life. Anxiety disturbs the well

being of a normal teenager everyday tasks. Inside I felt like I was losing my mind and the

humiliation stung feeling like I was alone was hard on me. Many ask “ How does it feel to

struggle with this mental illness? ”, and my response to that is that anxiety is the sensation of

uneasiness, constant worry, triggered and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that is only

subjectively seen as menacing.

Anxiety entered in my life when I was 16 years old since that time it has been a constant

guest in my life. Some being the worst days and having a reminder that I’m struggling feeling

like I have no way out. Having anxiety is so discouraging and tiring. I had to learn that we have

highs and lows in life, but I always felt like I was always on the low. Dealing with anxiety at was

terrifying at first having no idea what it was or how did I end up with it.At that time I couldn’t
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figure out what was wrong with me. Having a traditional Mexican mother thinking I was

possessed because we did not really talk about our mental state being was challenging.

I had my first anxiety attack sitting down while doing my homework, I do not know what

triggered it at the time, but all I remember was feeling stuck, my heart was racing, feeling like I

was running out of breath. I felt that I was trapped and an escape was not easily accessible and I

needed a really long pause in that moment.Not long after that first incident, I entered into therapy

I’ll say that has been a big help in my life. Knowing now that I’m not the only one dealing with

anxiety made me feel more calm and collected. I still struggle a lot when I feel it but I also take

the time to soothe it and to try to understand it. Having to understand anxiety won’t leave my

body until I truly ignore and pretend it’s not there is difficult. This experience made me fall

behind many of my classes last year. Having “ I don’t care attitude” throughout my junior year

and affected my grades, not only was I not caring about my grades but of myself either. It was so

stressful for me I began breakout it was not pretty at all.

Having to go through this challenge in my life gained something from most of them but it

was my personal efforts to ‘overcome’ anxiety that pushed me to keep trying although didn’t

succeed because I still deal with it at this very point in my life. I have learned to meditate and to

seek calm when I can. Wishing I could take a magic wand sometimes and wave it away.’ But if

we can be more gentle and patient with our anxiety we can learn a message behind our hardships

in life. Everything we go through has a purpose in our life even though we may not see it while

we are dealing with at the moment. At the very end we get to reflect and realize life may not be

easy all the time but there’s happy moments in it.

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