Personal Narrative: My Anxiety In Middle School

The future is an uncertain, daunting place, where one small occurrence can lead to potentially rewarding or disastrous outcomes. This has been my mind set since I have entered middle school, as I believed that bad grades would deter me from my goal of going to a top university and becoming a successful doctor, and I dreaded receiving any grade below an A. This fear caused me to scrutinize every homework, assessment, and project over and over, for fear that my teachers would find my work fallible and inferior to the other students’ work and therefore not worthy of the grade I want.
However, lately I have begun to realize that the anxiety is getting the better of me. It all started when I started panicking for an essay in English that I assumed was due the next day yet really wasn’t, and when I was assured that the assignment was in fact not due, I realized that I have unhealthy anxiety and it was controlling my life, as I could not enjoy my life due to my constant worry over my grades, and taking me to the realization that my anxiety is ripping me to shreds.
I feared doing poorly so much, that I began to imagine horrific (for me) scenarios if my life does not go to plan, such as going to mediocre college and/or living paycheck to paycheck working at McDonald's for the rest of my life. Fortunately, I realized that this behavior is irrational, as my parents, teachers, and friends have told me to focus on doing well rather than fearing performing poorly, and I have begun digging myself out of this hole of constant anxiety, carrying with me the realization that anxiety does not help me, but hinders me, as it damages my confidence as a