Personal Narrative: Personal Experience: Expectations Or Reality?

Expectations or Reality
As a child, I was always told to try my hardest and be respectful. This mainly applied to school and led me to believe that working hard was one of the few meanings in life. But as I aged, I realized I don’t even care about finding points x and y on a graph. What matters is forming relationships with others and finding those exciting moments that make you feel as though you’re walking on air. Life is hard but in the end, it pays you back, not with money, but happiness and memories. Looking back through photos like the one below, I now know that cheerful moments and the people who are a part of them are what truly matter. Make sure to enjoy every moment before it 's gone, life may be hard and even unfair, but you need

Ever since I walked into my preschool classroom at just three years old I’ve been told to ‘be good’ and work the hardest in everything I do. The snapshot above depicts the moment my brother and I are about to leave for our first day of the year at private school. By first grade I had been sent to this tiny private school where both my parents and teachers emphasized that all that matters in a classroom is never disrupting the teacher and always working the hardest to get the best grades you can get. So, I followed these rules and was an extremely happy and successful student who never talked and always worked hard to learn all that I could. When middle school rolled around, my mind seemed to take a somersault and I started perceiving life very differently. I looked around the classroom and was no longer happy; I could see the same class that I’d known my whole life interacting and talking to each other. How did they do that? We were told to always be quiet so why

Wearing that fancy, collared uniform every day to school meant that I needed to get good grades. The rigorous, fast moving courses proved to be quite a challenge. But nevertheless, I mastered all of my classes. The weight on my back increased in size with the peer pressure of joining and succeeding in sports. I took part in a plethora of physical activities including soccer, basketball, and baseball. I definitely didn 't ‘learn character’ from playing sports, but I did learn how horrible I was at them. After joining these sports I felt like I always failed and let my teammates down. After one of my basketbal seasons my team voted for people to receive awards. When I won an award, I was more confused than when I was in my algebra class. This reward was only given to the most supportive player on the team. In this moment my mind did some more gymnastics. It didn’t matter if I scored any points or was successful on the court, what truly mattered was being part of the team. Being a benchwarmer wasn’t that bad of a job. I loved cheering people up who had missed a shot or celebrating with those that were successful. These moments were what put me on cloud nine, the real, genuine interactions with my teammates. As long as I worked hard, my grades weren’t a life or death situation. I just needed to stop worrying and start living. Sadly, the amazing coach of this basketball team passed away due to cancer not