Personal Narrative: Overcoming Obstacles And Barriers

Everyone has obstacles in life, but find different ways of overcoming the adversity. When you overcome obstacles, you either have a negative or positive attitude. But in the end, you usually end up happy with your outcome. People overcome challenges by not giving up, having a good attitude, and being confident. First, not giving up helps people get over challenges because when you give up, you're throwing away your idea and thinking that it may not change the world or it won't have an effect on anyone.

My first educational barriers was learning.In 1st grade it was hard to communicate with my classmate and teacher.I felt disappointed in myself and discourage making me feel important. Meanwhile, my cousin taught me how to speak English fluently, we first started with basic words like ‘’hi’’ or ‘’good morning.’’That’s how I worked myself through this barrier and to this day, I know how to speak English fluently. Although, some students would make fun of me because I would have an accent. For example, when people come from a different country and they try to talk English they would have an accent from their original country.

Every person encounters various roadblocks throughout life. Some of these impediments could be brought by societal mindsets, others from mental and physical aspects of life, but they are all similar in one way-you can only move on to achieve your goals by overcoming these blockages.

My dad was born on April 23rd and that date always brings fond memories. When April comes I always find myself thinking first of him and then my mom who was born at the end of May. I sure miss them both. As the years roll on and I think back it really boggles my mind to think that my parents had to leave everything behind when they fled their homeland Latvia during WWII. They started up a new life in New York City as most likely none of you have ever had to do literally from scratch. They had no furniture, no belonging only the things they had with them from the DP or Displaced Persons Camp in Germany.

I have confronted numerous challenges throughout my life. I was born into a poor family in a little country, Nepal. I moved to the United States when I was only 10 years old, and I had no knowledge of English. Transformation from Nepal to United States was one of the hardest, but the most beneficial, things in my life. My family moved to the United States so my siblings and I could get a better education and have a better life. It was hard to move to a new country specially since I could not speak or understand much English.

PROMPT #2: PROMPT #2: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Imagine being at the peak of your high school career, personally, academically, and athletically. For me, that was my sophomore year. I was selected to be on the homecoming court, I won a free class ring, and a free corsage and boutonniere for prom. I was on my way to a 4.0 grade point average. I was pulled up to Varsity basketball, I became the 100 meter hurdle regional champion, and I qualified for two events at the Division 4 State meet for track and field. In one split second, a clip of a hurdle, that was over. My first race of the day was the preliminary 100 meter hurdles. Once the race started, I was calm, focused, and determined. I was starting to make my way up to the front of the pack when I clipped my trail leg on the eighth hurdle.

An obstacle I have overcome in my life is school. In school I have to work a little bit harder than others so i don’t fall behind. My choice to try harder helped me to keep going.If I didnt choose to work harder and keep going i would never get anywhere in life. I think having to work harder than others pushes me to be my best and makes me a stronger person.

Overall, my first semester has been going pretty well. The semester is going like a roller coaster up, down, and fast. I have some bad days and some good days. Through this semester, I have many challenges I faced which I honestly did not want to face. Even though I just wanted to dodge or run away from the challenges, I still face them and fought through them. Some challenges I face this semester, hopefully not in the next, are procrastination, time management, and laziness. I have not only gone through challenges; I have also gone through successes. I am proud of turning assignments on time, passing tests and quizzes, completing my SCR points, and being involved in clubs. Being in Biomed has helped me grow as a student in the area of knowledge.

It was a big step to come to the United States because it is not easy to be far away from friends and family. Moving was the most radical change happened to me because I moved from an Arabic-speaking country to an English-speaking country. When I came to the U.S, it was so difficult for me to understand others, and if someone talked to me, I won’t understand what he/she are talking about. One day I was walking around and a woman came to me, she was asking me something, but I could not understand her because I did not know English so I could not communicate with her. By then, I realized how important to know the language so you could talk and communicate with others. Especially when I am in a country that they only speak English and there are little people who know my language. When I was enrolled in school, I was put in a special program for the non-speaking English called ESL. ESL was a program that helps the students their English is the second language how to read and write English. Mrs. Senick, my ESL teacher helped me so much to learn the language. She was an amazing teacher because she loves her job and she was willing to help me and the other students who are in the same situation as mine. In the beginning, it was difficult because I do not know any English, but after a while,

Have you ever had an obstacle to face but can’t figure out how to overcome it? Let’s say that you just got to school to school and the teacher tells the class that the first thing that you are doing today is reading. You start to panic because you are terrible at reading. You pray that you won’t get chosen to read aloud, but sure enough you get chosen. You try your best and when you finish, you hear kids laughing under their breath.

Hurdles and obstacles are the major building blocks of one’s character and stamina. When faced with troubles, some stumble and fall, others pick themselves up and grow from the experience. Without a doubt, there is a particular hurdle that has inevitably shaped the way I am today. This massive hurdle was none other than the transition from moving across the United States. Not only was the move an environmental change geographically, but culturally as well.

When I first came to the US, I couldn’t speak a word of English. At the beginning, a huge depression invaded me; after school, I locked in my bathroom and cried for hours. After a month, I remembered that I had come to this country to pursue a better education, thus a better future. Therefore, I decided that something else had to be done because weeping wasn’t solving anything. That day, I developed a schedule, where I would spend half of the day studying vocabulary and reviewing conversations until I learned the language, which I did a year later.

My biggest challenge was not being able to interact with my fellow classmates because I did not speak English at the time. At times, I felt lonely and found it difficult to make friends. I also struggled to succeed academically due to my language barrier. In these adversities, I reflected on my parents’ hard work and what they went through to get me here, and it was the motivation I needed to help me overcome the challenges I was facing. I overcame this obstacle through perseverance, and managed to succeed both in my social and academic life though

In my 38 years of life, I’ve had to overcome plenty of obstacles. When examining my life, especially in my younger years, it showed me life consists of an assortment of minor and major obstacles. Facing an obstacle, especially a major one, and conquering it, awards me a triumphant feeling. Furthermore, this feeling did provide me with determination, willpower, and courage to take on any future obstacles that life can throw at me (Harrington, 2012). This makes minor obstacles to become like a cake walk.