Overcoming Obstacles

When most people think of overcoming an obstacle, they think of the physical, something like finishing a difficult project or running a marathon. We are inclined to forget about the mental obstacles, despite the fact that they are often much harder hurdles to leap than the ones you would find on a high school track. I have encountered plenty of real life obstacles, of course, and have met them with success and failure alike. But the one I am most proud of overcoming is not something I could put down on a resume. I managed to overcome my own doubts, and though this took years to accomplish, it left me able to become the person I want to be.
I was painfully shy throughout my childhood. It was cute as a six-year-old, but as a preteen, it was anything but. I drifted all through middle school as if it was a barely remembered dream. Nothing touched me, neither good nor bad, because I would not let it. I was too scared of failure to stick out in any way, too afraid of rejection to speak up. I kept my head down and my mouth shut, and entered high school with a reputation as nonexistent as my confidence. …show more content…
I got peer pressured into joining marching band, an activity that I imagined to consist of a bunch of nerds sweating out in the sun for several hours a day. Instead, what I found was the first group of people that was actually eager to accept me. It gave me the courage to be myself, something that most people take for granted. I started joining activities that interested me, getting involved with the school and with others in a way that would have frightened me only a few months before. I took an active role in my own life for the first time ever and it opened up paths that I never knew were