Personal Narrative Analysis

The fall term during my junior year was probably the toughest time that I had to endure. This term marks the first time that I got back to school after the car accident that happened in New Zealand. For about half of the term, I couldn’t even ride to school, because a simple car horn could startle me and sometimes it made me relive of what happened on that forgetful night. I was even terrified just to cross the streets, the very same streets that I have walked on for more than two years. Besides my fragile emotional state at the time, I had to take the maximum credits that an undergraduate could take if I want to graduate in four years. While most of the classes were straightforward, organic chemistry caused me to struggle the most. On the

first exam in this class, I received my very first F. I felt pretty much destroyed at the time, thinking my chance of being involved in the healthcare profession might have been ruined.
Just when I thought it means the end for me, I came to remember what my parents used to tell me, which is ‘’to never it up until the end’’.

By the second half of the term, my emotional state got better as I became involved in various outdoor groups at my school. In addition, I also adjusted my studying habit that I got so used to for the last few years. Instead of simply reading off lectures from the power point, I spent time after class visiting office hour to talk with my professors about concepts that I didn’t understand. Together with doing more problem sets, I was able to get a B- in this class, considering that there were only two exams in this class. As for my other classes, I managed to create a schedule so that I would spend at least 7 hours going over the materials before and after lecture for each class, and the results turned out just as I expected, with an average grade of A- . Regardless, I wished I could have been more involved in study groups to get a much better result. At the time, I always found myself trying to go over the materials alone in the library, instead of working in groups with my friends. But soon after, I came to realize that working together could have speed up the learning process much faster. Instead of spending valuable time puzzling over complicated concepts, I could learn quickly by simply asking a question. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to get new perspectives on certain topic and breaks the monotony when I study by

myself.
As time passed, my emotional state got much better and so did my confidence. I started to resume doing things that I used to do before the accident and incorporated them into my new schedule. While there might have been a few challenges here and there after, I knew that I’m capable of working hard to come up with a new solution without backing down. If this experience taught me anything, it’s that I need to be resilience regardless of the circumstance. I believe my grit and strong work ethic will allow me to thrive in any environment, including optometry school and further advances my development as a person.