Personal Narrative: Obsessive Compulsive Disorders

Before I begin it is probably best to inform you, the reader, about myself. I am, as I describe myself, a “high functioning” person with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. To put it plainly, I am very particular about most things and I follow a set of daily routines that must be accomplished, yet they do not have any drastic crippling effects on my day to day life. On the contrary, I find that I can use these compulsions to my advantage over most situations. At times, I consider it quite entertaining and even laughable. In my own case, an emphasis on punctual timing, organization, cleanliness and hygiene are of great importance to me. However, when such rituals are violated or compromised in any sort of way, it has the capability to cause me great

discomfort for periods of time. In fact, quite recently my system was compromised.
It was a Thursday.

To be exact, it was Thursday September 10, 2015. It started off as any other day where I woke up at exactly 6:00am, as always. I gathered my supplies for the day, got myself ready and made sure to leave my cottage at precisely 7:10am, never earlier nor any later. This actually works out quite well as it allows me to get my breakfast at Wanda’s before the line gets too long as well as giving me enough time to walk to the university’s engineering building. It’s perfect. That morning, I left at around 7:40, where I proceeded to walk to my next class at the engineering building, arriving at around 8:00, where I had extra time to briefly skim over some material before my 8:45 class. My day proceeded as planned for the next two hours or so where I would attend my classes and accomplish what needed to be done. It wasn’t until the end of my second class of the day when the chaos began to

unfold.
The class ended at its usual time, and my project-mates had just finished compiling a list of supplies as well as our overall goal for an upcoming project. After the class ended I made my way out of the engineering building and proceeded to walk to my next course back in the Yeager center. As I kept walking, something felt off, yet I could not pinpoint the source of the issue. I initially shrugged off the feeling, but it kept persisting. It was only a minute later when it occurred to me a few things were off at that moment. One: I was walking too slow and two: my phone was off which kept me unaware of the time. I should have listened to my instincts and for good reason. As soon as I checked the time, I noticed I was extremely behind schedule. My next class was about to start in four minutes! So much for punctuality.
I immediately kicked into high gear and bolted my way to the main campus past incoming hordes of students on skateboards.

If I went any faster, I probably would have gone supersonic and shattered the sound barrier. I felt absolutely ridiculous running around the campus while everyone else casually strolled by and stared at me as if I was some kind of lunatic. To make matters worse, I had to wear a suit for the Male Chorale that day and the sun was being especially relentless. I felt my clothes fuse to my skin with visible stains in the armpit areas on the outside while my internal organs burned on the inside. So much for cleanliness and hygiene. In addition to everything else, my backpack’s zippers went undone causing all my books, which I had taken the time to ever so nicely organize into specific sections, to fly out onto the blazing hot concrete. Every fiber of my being screamed in protest as I hastily crammed everything back into my backpack without taking the time to reorganize everything into its proper place. I wanted to rip my hair out. Well, so much for

organization.

I finally burst through the doors of the Yeager center and zoomed up a flight of stairs to my Composition class, feeling humiliated and disgusting. Nonetheless, I swallowed my emotions and entered the classroom, and just when I thought things could not have gotten any worse, I saw that the class had just taken a quiz that I could not take since I was late! Although my outward expression was fairly neutral, I inwardly blew a fuse.
Despite the ordeal that took place, I found that the world did not end. Despite my tardiness, I was given the chance to redeem myself by writing this assignment. To add on, a few days later, I left the house at 7:14……. and it felt great.