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'my horrid archenemy, Spanish' - Princeton - Voice Essay


pringles 6 / 36  
Jan 1, 2012   #1
I put this together rather quickly so I know it's not anywhere near perfect but please critique in anyway you can. Thanks!

Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation at the beginning of your essay.

"What's comin' will come and we'll meet it when it does." - Hagrid, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
It was that time of year again. The coffee was brewing, blood pressure and stress levels were rising, and textbooks lay open as far as the eye could see. Yes, final exams were finally here. This was especially bad for someone with test anxiety like myself. I had spent the last week checking and double-checking what I needed on each exam to keep my A's. All was well except for my horrid archenemy, Spanish I. I had barely stayed afloat in that class with a borderline A and anything could shift the balance. Just the thought of it caused my heart to race.

The next few nights were perfectly dreadful. I had trouble sleeping, happiness refused to shine its soft, refreshing rays upon me, and I was on edge. All I could think about was what was going to be on that test. The teacher hadn't given me any relief with the answer "Don't worry about it, you'll know it when you see it" and my mind continued to blank on this year's lesson. There seemed to be no way out. When I would think about and long for the vacation that was to come right after the test, time would move slow, but when I would try to study for the test, the hands would race around the edge of the clock and I wouldn't get enough done. I was trapped. There was so much turbulence in my mind that I couldn't even get much studying done for the actual exam. Worry overtook me.

A couple of days before the test, I laid there in my bed and my mind wandered. I channeled the worry in my head into anger towards my teacher. How was it fair that she didn't tell us anything? Her words "don't worry about it, you'll know it when you see it" played on an infinite loop in my head and I hated her now more than ever. How were those words supposed to make me feel better? And then suddenly... I had it. The answer was clear and I finally understood what she meant. Testing was not what I feared, but instead I was afraid of the mystery that surrounded it. The test was an unknown in my organized world of knowledge. My thought had always been, what can be scarier than something you don't know about? I had never seen it in a different way. However, my teacher was trying to tell me to not worry because it's out of my control. The test would not change if I worried about it or not, so why should I choose the more painful option? The only thing I could change was myself and how I was going to face what was coming. That meant I should be studying instead of worrying. All I could do was prepare vigorously and hope it was enough. With that in mind, I shut my eyes, and for the first time in a week, I was completely relaxed. The thoughts melted away my anxiety and my lost friend sleep finally returned to me.

Even after I awoke, the thoughts stuck with me and I felt great. The next few days were rigorous, filled with odd conjugations and hundreds of vocabulary words, but I pushed through. When the test day finally arrived, I was confident and ready to face my unknown nemesis. I unsheathed my pencil and raised my eraser and slew the beast. I walked out that year with an A in Spanish and a cure for my test anxiety. It never was to be seen again.
ekreal 6 / 35  
Jan 1, 2012   #2
I really like it! It has a great flow, I a saw no mistake of any kind.. I mean it is not that special, but it doesn't necessarily need to be I guess :)


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