In “The Excuse ‘Not To’,” Zoe Ockenga talks about how anxiety can be a huge setback for people. At the start of Ockenga’s essay, she talks about how anxiety affected her when she had to do her first speech in front of her class. Later, she spoke of James Lincoln Collier and how anxiety made him miss out on a huge opportunity that he would later regret. Towards the end of the article, Ockenga talks about her mom not having a job outside of the house and how it affected her when she was asked to take on a job as a manager at a new art gallery. I agree with Ockenga on many different things throughout the article. I have anxiety also and I agreed when Ockenga talked about how anxiety made things seem like a bigger problem than what they were. “Less than five minutes later the whole …show more content…
I like to look at it like learning a new language. If you start learning a new language when you’re young, it’s easier to become bilingual than if you start at an older age. I think it’s the same way with anxiety and stepping out of comfort zones. The older you get, the harder it is. I also related to the author when she was talking about the other person's anxiety and how he missed a huge opportunity because of it. He related “I had turned down something I wanted to do because I was scared and had ended up feeling depressed” (Collier 91). I feel like I’ve missed so many good opportunities in my life because I was scared of stepping out of my comfort zone. I haven’t gone on trips with my friends because I had a sinking feeling that I would get social anxiety by being around people I didn’t know that well. When they come back from their trips, they love to talk about all the fun times they had, and I end up feeling like I was left out in some way, even though I was invited and declined the invitation. My life would have been easier and possibly more fun and exciting if I hadn’t let myself hold back just because of my