How I Overcome My Anxiety Essay Example

From learning how to open up, creating creative thoughts and suffering from anxiety have all made a serious impact on my journey through life and making my way up to college. The different aspects of my life have changed me for the better and worse. 

While growing up I have always had one main struggle, anxiety. From about the time I got into middle school anxiety would change the way I lived my life from day to day. During school, it wasn’t like I was having anxiety and panic attacks every day, but the little things that made my head spin. Simple things like just having to get up in the middle of class to throw something away or ask the teacher a question were hard tasks for me to do. Because my mind made me think that if I get up everyone's eyes will be on me.

For no reason, I just had these fears of accomplishing simple tasks as if something horrible would happen if I did it. When someone maybe looked at me for a split second my mind would automatically assume the worst in the situation. As if they were judging something I was wearing or they didn’t like me even though there was probably never even a reason, they probably were just looking around and we happened to meet eyes at the same time. Having anxiety stopped me from doing things that I’ve wanted to do because I feared everyone looking at me. Having this as a challenge with everyday activities sucks but it also helped me become better at a few things. 

Arriving on time is something that I really benefited from. When doing something my mind always worries “what if I arrive too early then I’ll be sitting there alone waiting” along with “what if I arrive late, then all the eyes will be on me walking in.” Arriving late and walking in late is something that I fear to do because it causes me so much stress, and growing up with an older sister who is always late makes it so difficult. Since she is the one who drives I can’t leave until she is ready and she is never ready on time so that makes it worse. These little things make me unable to function at certain times because of my mind thinking the worst all the time. My anxiety still continues to happen but not as badly all the time. 

An achievement that I accomplished during my time in high school was while I was a part of the pub lab. Pub lab is creating the school yearbook and magazines. I had originally joined this class to take photos and learn more about photography, but I later learned that I actually was not that big fan of it but rather the design part of the yearbook/magazine. In a pub lab, there are certain steps that it takes to complete a spread.

One of the first things is to come up with the spread plan, or the ideas I have for designing it, then interviewing the people about the topic. This was very hard for me to do when I first started because I would have to email them and find a time that would work and then meet them to interview them. For me, it was very scary to meet people I did or didn’t know and talk to them about a topic. But after having to interview many people for many different spreads it became so much easier for me to do. I am no longer scared to talk to people, I have become comfortable with it. 

Interviewing people has made me open up more and not be so socially awkward in situations like that or just in everyday life. This class not just made me open up more but it also helped me with thinking of ways to design spreads easier, or just the design aspect overall.  During my time in Pub Lab so far I have created multiple different spreads in both the yearbook and magazine. So I've become better with working on Indesign and Photoshop and just thinking of ideas overall.

I never knew how much I would actually enjoy designing and creating them until I created my first spread. The first spread that I fully designed was the dress code spread in the magazine. The topic was already something that I was extremely passionate, so getting to put my ideas and input into was something I really enjoyed. Creating multiple spreads has made it easier for me to think of more ideas to put into other yearbooks and magazines. Pub lab overall is something that was and still is very beneficial. 

About a year ago I visited the Eau Claire campus and I really liked it. One thing that stood out was just the campus overall and how it was just a little community. Some other campuses that I have seen are just scattered throughout the city, and I like how Eau Claire is not like that. While I was there I also just really liked the whole vibe of the school, it just sort of seemed like a happy place to be. Eau Claire definitely seems like a really nice school to go to.

While combining both my challenges and successes it has added up throughout my life and has gotten me where I am today. Going through certain situations has led me to be able to choose which school I think would benefit myself the most, I think that school is Eau Claire. The community of the school will help with my anxiety because I won’t feel as pressured to find the building while going through the city. All the different aspects of the good and bad have shaped me and I have changed throughout the years so I do think that the University of Eau Claire will be the best fit for me.