Marie S.

Personal Achievement: Going Out of my Comfort Zone

Description:
My journey on my pursuit to try new things consists of a series of experiences,
motivations, and events. Ever since I can remember up until grade 10, I never had the courage
to follow my passions. I always kept myself sealed in my “comfort box” because I feel safer. I
am very sensitive and emotional. On top of that, I am also very shy who lacks the ability to
communicate. I always think that if I expose myself to the society, I might end up getting myself
hurt, which is what I always fear. I fear getting hurt because I know that my sensitive and
emotional character will not be able to handle the pain. Additionally, I take criticisms and
judgements personally. Even by just keeping myself locked in my box, I already receive
criticisms and judgements, what more if take risks?!
This negatively affects my life because I let opportunities pass, no matter how eager I
am to grab it, to the extent that even my passions get sacrificed. I want to enjoy my life. I want
to experience new adventures, but with my character I have always believed that I will never be
able to get it.
This has been a routine for me until I reached the 11th grade. Grade 11 is what I call the
beginning of the peak of my life. In grade 11, I was forced to volunteer and try new activities.
Every week, I should be doing something creative and active, as well I should do some service
activities. Because of this, I volunteered to be a mentor of Go Girls, which is organized by Big
Brothers Big Sisters, and I had a reason to enroll myself in swimming lessons.
Ever since I was young, I have always wanted to learn how to swim, however due to
financial reasons, I never had the opportunity to. But when an opportunity already came, I
declined it. Moving to Canada have opened new opportunities for me, including swimming
lessons. However, when I found that I will be enrolled in adults swimming lessons as a result of
my age, I declined the opportunity because of my fear in getting criticized and judged.
However, because of this graduation requirement, I was forced to try it out and I never
regretted doing it. It was very difficult and challenging in the beginning, but after few lessons, I
eventually loved the experience. This contributed a lot of factor in my self-confidence because
as someone who grew up loving the beach, swimming is passion and is like part of my identity.
Similarly, being a mentor of children also helped me in boosting my self-confidence.
Children are my stress-reliever; I love interacting and playing with children, thus this
opportunity helped me in not caring about criticisms and judgements.
These two experiences are what initiated my journey in going out of my comfort zone. It
was very challenging, but I was very happy when I was able to overcome my fear in exposure as
it is something, I have always believed I can never do, and also because I am learning on how to
handle my fear in criticism and judgements and to ignore the negative voices of my
surrounding.

Personal Relevancy
My journey in being a risk-taker is very important for me because my timidity and social
anxiety are my biggest fear and set back and also because the longer it takes for my journey to
begin, the worse my character gets, in relation to my sensitivity and timidity. I missed a lot of
opportunities; most importantly I always ignore those opportunities that allows me to follow
my passions, which are very important in my personal and professional life. When my journey
began, I have noticed a big positive change in my life, and as well it contributed a factor in my
journey to shaping my character to be a better individual.

Skill Development
In my pursuit to my journey, I have developed some skills along the way. One of the
skills that I gained is independence. Before, I always rely on the companionship and the comfort
of friendship. Before, I can never imagine myself doing something without the presence of the
friends; you can never see me walking in the hallways alone and neither can I be spotted along
during lunch or during school events. But with my journey, I have learned to face all my
problems alone as well as experience new adventures without the companionship of my friends
and without anyone to help me in figuring things out and in solving problems that rises. The
independence that I have developed was even more furthered because now I am no longer
bothered about what people would think about me if they see me alone in the hallways and
during lunch and school events.

Self-awareness
Furthermore, my journey has helped me a lot in building my self-confidence because my
passions are what keep me from giving up as they are like my foundation. Also, I have never
imagined being able to overcome my fears, so being able to do so is a big achievement for me.
Because of that, it made me realize that I am not as weak as I think I am and that I have the
ability to overcome my weaknesses and my challenges on my own, without the comfort of
anyone to support me and that I can build my self-confidence with just my own abilities.
Moreover, it also taught me that everything comes in the right time and that all I need is to be
resilient, determined, and be patient until that right time comes because it is the bitterness that
I experience during the process is what will makes my success sweeter.

Future connections
My journey is very important in my career choice. I want to be a pediatric physician; I
want to be that physician who will be able to get the heart and trust of their patients. Usually
patients are scared to express what they feel to their doctor as they may not feel too
comfortable sharing their feelings. But if the patients are comfortable with their physicians then
they will be able to share their feelings without a challenge. Therefore, I want to be that
physician whom the patients will be comfortable to. Additionally, a pediatrician’s patients
would be children, therefore it is important that they don’t get scared of them. For the
pediatricians to set the environment, they must not have that monotone voice (they should
sound cheerful and friendly) and should look approachable. But to do this, they must not be shy
and they should be expressive so that they will look approachable.
I can also apply my journey to my daily life. To be able to take risks and not be scared is
necessary to have an adventurous and unforgettable memories, which is what I want my life to
have.