Personal Narrative Essay: I Am A Perfectionist

I am a perfectionist. Ever since I was young, my parents have always pressured me to achieve the very best in life. My parents got divorced before I was born and they always told me that I could be anything I wanted as long as it was a better life than the one they had growing up. This has caused my childhood to be plagued with a desire to succeed in everything I do. I get irritated by the idea that I have achieved anything less than a B as a grade or the fact that I am even five minutes late to anything. I set goals for myself and the things I want to achieve in a given time period, and if they are not met, I usually end up giving up on them. I do not remember when I developed this habit, but it has taken a toll on my life. My perfectionist tendencies prevent me from taking many of the chances presented to me …show more content…
Simple morning traffic can ruin my whole day. Even though I cannot do anything about the traffic, I get frustrated about it. Whenever I make plans and they do not happen as I wanted them to, I have to convince myself verbally otherwise. Although most people look forward to vacations, they are a nightmare for me. I get anxious over the possibility that something will go wrong from flight delays to lost baggage. Instead of enjoying the actual trip, I will spend my time waiting for something to go wrong and coming up with ways to prevent it from happening. I am not the biggest fan of changes as I have no control over them. The idea of moving from one house to other takes me weeks to accept. After that, I start worrying about getting accustomed to a new environment. A family friend of ours recently told me that they were moving to another country, and I was so distraught that I cried. I had a panic attack as this meant a change in my life and I was not prepared for it. I ended up writing down a list of reasons why this move was a good thing for them to calm myself