Personal Narrative Essay

To the Girl In the Shadow of Another

Confident is something everyone tells us to be, some even say it is the key to success. On the contrary, I have always felt like confidence was something that was situational, one could be shining with confidence during a test but shaking with anxiety in social situations. In the first ten years of my life I was just like any other kid; I was absolutely positive that I was pretty much the best at everything in the world, and could achieve anything i wanted. This changed in my middle to high school years as I discovered the world I lived in. I was unsure of who I was without someone else to guide me. Luckily, this journey through finding myself and learning to generate a confidence I had only ever known through academics, led me to right where I belong; California state university, Sacramento.

Around the time I turned eleven years old I was uprooted from my Citrus Heights, California home and plopped right down in Roseville, California. This was only a nine mile difference but to my eleven year old self it seemed like a friendless death sentence. I walked into my sixth grade P.E. class and sat down by myself

This brought us even closer as we practiced with each other and bonded even further. This also forced us to bond with others and we made other friends without compromising our friendship. This helped me see that maybe it was possible to have a life outside of my best friend, and maybe it was time. That year both Nicole and I applied to be captains for our senior year of the dance team. For the very first time in my life I was chosen instead of Nicole. This put a new level of confidence in me and lighted a fire I never knew existed. Our friendship continued to flourish even though I had new jobs and responsibilities that she did not. It was clear that i could be self-reliant, even if I wasn’t sure how