Middle School Transition Analysis

They say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but in my case, the apple couldn’t have landed any farther. Unlike my sociable father, chatty mother, and my rather talkative sister, I grew up with what seemed to be the communication and social skills equivalent to a brick wall. No one could penetrate the emotional barrier I had set up for myself at birth and the wall just kept getting higher and higher as the years went on. Most people interpreted my personality as a “phase” I would eventually outgrow or a “shell” that I would come out of, but the older I got the more withdrawn I became and the deeper I hid within my so-called “shell.” Middle school was when I discovered just how much my shy demeanor was negatively affecting my life. The once timid and bashful behaviors that were seen as cute and endearing transformed into crippling social
Despite my challenges in the years prior, I was excited (yet still scared to death) to start fresh in a different environment with new students and teachers. Now, because I was attending a school in Frisco, the largest growing city in America, I was faced with competing academically with over 1,500 other students, which is not an easy task if you want to have a chance at being in the top 10%. So, what did I do? I foolishly decided to take primarily easy classes and avoided any electives that were intellectually challenging so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed or stressed. My anxiety persuaded me to stay away from too many advanced classes, despite me knowing that I had the capabilities to do them. After completing my freshman year and realizing that my mediocre rank was caused by a lack of effort, I entered my sophomore year with a vengeance. I took as many pre-AP and AP classes that I could, and because I was so busy with my school work and making good grades, my anxiety was left on the backburner and basically out of my