A Narrative Essay About Moving To A Better Place

Through struggle and mental illness, I have fought my way and earned the position I hold now. While situations could be improved for me, I am satisfied with how I turned my life around in and outside of school.
From before freshman year, I was told that I am going to private school, as the West Orange High School ruined my sister and the same would happen to me. Being convinced that the high school was for all the regular people, I was made to believe that I was so smart that I obtained the privilege to experience the Roman Catholic Private School, Seton Hall Prep. While not having a choice in the matter, I could not argue as I had no voice of my own to express my views on the situation. Being forced into a foreign school divided by town, class, race, and being forced to abandon my friends, certain thoughts such as. ¨This is for the better¨ and ¨I must do it for the better of my education¨ embedded itself into my mind. I would have continued to believe this, had I not began struggling in school. As grades began to dip down to the lowest I have ever experienced, I could not discover my problem. Am I just not paying much attention? Am

I not studying heavily enough? Am I just not getting it? I instinctively pushed the blame onto myself and acted as such I am at fault. I carried the world on my back, but the weight only distracted me from how tired I was.
Plagued by emotions throughout the year, I grew to resent the school for what it is doing to me.

Anxiety grew inside me like a parasite, feeding off what little friendships I had, my performance, and my well being. The school was draining me into a husk of my former self and a failure. To understand the social structure of the school, one has to be inside, and while athletes were at the top, those of which did not fit in were stuck in the bottom. This has been my first time being at the bottom. As my anxiety had grown to fill my head with negativity, I was finally given my chance. On the side of the hospital bed in which my mother had laid, my family had given me a choice as I had not had a voice before, the choice of Seton Hall or West Orange. The conflict in my mind over this situation induced stress on whether I will stay or

move.
I decided to leave, and to seek therapy, which ended up being the turning point of my life. That summer, I had let my mind heal and rework itself to the point in which I no longer needed therapy. As it shows, Sophomore year was a full upgrade. I finally was able to unleash my full potential and accomplished high grades for all my classes. I finally felt comfortable, and continued to do adequately in school to this present day. While my GPA has been scarred and will never fully live up to what it should be, I am satisfied that I turned an ~2.00 to a 3.328. Not only was the road was long and exhausting, but I still have problems that stem from this, but I deal with them to my best ability straight away. I have grown stronger than I ever believed I am, and I am finally content. I have taken my future and taken complete charge over myself. I have turned into a vigorous worker when inspired which allows me to focus on opportunities. Self-discovery has led me to figure out fluidity of my personality and the limits of what I can handle. In the end, this overall experience changed me into a better person, and I would not have discovered myself without it.