If you were to ask me four years ago who I would imagine myself ending up like after high school, it would not be who I am today. The 13 long, and sometimes dreaded, years I experienced in school helped me discover the type of person I wanted to become. Finishing high school was the first milestone that I achieved as an adult and helped me discover my adulthood. Parker Palmer states student fears in his essay “The Courage to Teach” and Amy Tan discusses language barriers in her essay “Mother Tongue” which showed me how it was that I overcame my fear of rejection and the feeling of being ashamed about my mothers broken English. It is through their work that I can relate my personal struggles I encountered while finding my identity.
Palmer’s essay demonstrates the fears students go through and the pressure students feel about school. Palmer states student fears as, “failing … not
…show more content…
I would often sit alone in the loud and disturbing cafeteria because I feared rejection from other students. My junior year of high school, I decided to run for Interact Club president. I genuinely enjoyed being a part of the volunteer based club that met every Thursday. When deciding to run for president I felt as if I was bringing new ideas to the table in order to help our community better. I stood in front of what felt like a below zero, freezing meeting room, which was filled with the smell of everyone’s “nutritious” lunches, and gave a speech on why I should be voted in as the club president. Nobody knew who I was, a very shy soft-spoken girl, and by standing in front of that room, I was exposing myself to first hand, slap in the face, rejection. I didn’t win, I wasn’t even close in the running, but I gained more from that experience then I would have gained from winning. I gained confidence. I was proud of myself for facing my fear, and showing motivation to conquer