Assignment 21 - Isabella Matthews

First semester. Freshman year. I still have very little memory of what all happened. My parents describe it as a result of dealing with a series of health issues, both new and old, in addition to adjusting to high school and losing most of my friends from middle school. All I can recall is a handful of days strewn throughout the semester. I can recall the first day of school, and the first monday, and halloween, and maybe 2 or 3 days in December. Everything in between is a shaky blur of daily panic attacks, frequent doctor’s appointments, and failing grades. Somehow I got myself together in time for second semester and moved on with my life like nothing had happened, even making straight A’s.

We don’t often talk about that time period at my house. My parents were worried beyond belief and I think it caused them to suppress a lot of memories of it too. We don’t talk about the fact that I have anxiety. Or the fact that it’s taken a few months from me that I can never get back.

Although I have few memories of this time, I know that when I came out of it I had a new philosophy of how different things affect different people in different ways. It’s all relative. Based on the experiences you’ve had, the way you were raised, or the way you think about things, you might think one thing isn’t a big deal in comparison to bigger issues like war or world hunger. But while something might seem like a minor issue to you, it might be tearing someone else’s life apart. Realizing this has helped me to accept and help other people with their problems no matter what they might be, as well as to understand that it doesn’t matter the reason for someone’s hurting so much as it matters that they are hurting in general; that they need to be the focus, not things that often can’t be helped.