Personal Narrative: The Value Of Having An Open Mind

When we were ready our Dad thought us by using training wheels first and then he showed us how to pedal and where the brakes were, but when we rode in training wheels for an hour he took them off and we were afraid of falling and we were also very eager but nervous of falling. When we were ready our Dad just told us to look forward and pedal so we pedaled as fast as we could but we always fell and bleed from our arms and legs. Every time we fell we could taste the blood in our mouth for hitting it too much. Everything felt dusty because of all the dirt. We saw blood on our legs and arms and it was slowly dripping down. We heard our screams of pain and, we smelled all the flowers in the grass when we fell in the grass. It was really painful but it was going to be so easy when we could do it better but it had to be longer till we completely learned how to ride a bike. We kept trying everyday but it took us 6 days to learn because the park we practiced in had so many holes so when we rode our bike it was really hard to ride because of all the holes.

In chapter three it explains why your thought make you feel depress. “Every bad feeling you have is the result of your distorted negative thinking” (Burns, 1980, p. 28). It is feeling of beeng trap in negativity and emptyness. As I have mentioned in the past, I work at the Dollar General as a cashier. Lately, they ask me if I wanted to become a lead, I was surprise that they choose me, because I fell that I am not good for that position. The reason I mentioned this situation again is because as I was reading this chapter, I notice that all the “definition of cognitive distortion” applied to this circumstances:

The skin on my left hip was almost completely scraped off, but I was going to do it again. I wasn’t going to give up. Gaining speed down the hill with a huge smile on my face, I knew that I would get it this time. As I quickly turned the bike’s handlebars, my shoe laces got caught in the pedal. At the age of five, I was unaware of Newton’s first law of motion: An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. I flew off my bike and hit the ground full force, slid across the pavement, and came to a stop. I told myself that I needed to learn how to ride this bike, and my final attempt, after many hours outside, turned out successful. My mother says she remembers the moment when I walked through the door of my house and stood in the kitchen, insisting that I taught myself how to ride a two-wheeler. I was bloodied

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

Her father’s words echoed through her head as one might hear a reverberation throughout the Taj Mahal. Continuous. Chilling. Having no control to distill the wavelengths until they mellowed out on their own accord. She tried to anatomize the depth of his phrase, more than dutifully needed but Davina needed to know why. Why did she need to keep an open mind and more importantly, who the hell was about to come bursting through that door. But then again, did it really matter in the first place. When she thought about it, the brunette could have laughed at the idea. That an unattributed, faceless figure had her panties in a bunch. Surely Dominic wouldn’t think to waste her time with venial diversions,

Then I remembered, this is what I set out to fix! I refused to let my detrimental thinking get in the way of my improvement, and so, with all the courage I had, I walked into the gym. My first goal was to learn how to properly exercise. Lifting incorrectly could lead to a whole multitude of injuries, for example rounding the back on squats and deadlifts could lead to a herniated disk, or benching without pinching in shoulder blades could lead to a torn rotator cuff. In order to prevent these injuries I started lifting with very light weights. Despite my fear of being judged for lifting so little I knew I had to learn how to lift correctly. So I summoned all the self control I had and for the first month at the gym I made myself learn form. Finally I had all the tools and knowledge I needed to effectively achieve my goal. The only thing left was to create a habit. Up to now the habit was easy, go to the gym, record myself lifting little weights, judge form, go home. Then came the first day of heavy lifting, every weight became a struggle to lift. It was a true test of mental discipline. Not only did I have to maintain proper form, but I also had to

To have a fixed mindset means that you are stuck, you aren’t going anywhere. When challenged you give up and call it quits. A person with a fixed mindset could

I decided to change that doubt in myself by changing the thought that “I can’t do it” into “I will do it.” It sounds cringey, but I wanted to feel better about myself. Also, I started to train myself for the mile. I started going to the gym and running 2 miles every morning and night. I was so exhausted, I felt the sweat rolling down my face which brought joy into me for some reason. It was just the feeling of completing something really difficult, it was just the feeling of victory.

A fixed mindset is having the belief that your traits and talents are "given". Nothing can be done to change those traits and abilities - you have it or you don't. People with this mindset are worried about how adequate they are and believe that they have something to prove to themselves and to others (Dweck n.p.).

So my first lesson was how to balance on the skateboard. Albert told me where to put my feet and I stood on the skateboard. I was so scared I was going to fall and I did. He help me up and told me not to be so scared and shaky. So I tried again And I did it really well. I even leaned forward and back so once I started riding I would already know how to turn. So now I needed to learn how to balance on the skateboard with one leg and it only took a couple tries to get it down. So once I learned how to balance on the skateboard Albert told me to step on it and he pushed me.I was going so fast on the skateboard but then I remembered about my training. I started to balance and I started to turn and then I was riding a skateboard. All I had to do know was balance on one foot and kick back by other leg so I can push myself. I started to do that and I fell.

I used to feel invincible, always bragging to my friends that I have never broken a bone or had any serious injury. When I flew down the football field, the faith I had in myself assured me that nothing bad would happen… although I spoke too soon. My confidence was shattered along with my ankle that day. All of the big dreams I had for myself were locked away behind the obstacle of learning how to walk for the second time.

When I was younger my dad used to teach me how to ride my bike, first we started with training wheels until I had the basics down. Then when I was done with the training wheels we would ride in the back yard of my old house, which was muddy and bumpy. He would push me and tell me to keep my balance and keep both of my hands on the handle bars. But that was kind of complicated because of how muddy and bumpy it was in the backyard. Over and over again I would fall of the bike but I would always get back up and try again because I was no quitter. Then the next day my parents told me we were moving to another house and I didn't know what to think and that night I slept in there room. The next morning we went to the new house and I got on my bike

I’ve always been an overly cautious, nervous person in every aspect of my life. I’m choosy with my friends, I’m a picky eater, and I will not do anything that could be dangerous. Even when I was a little girl, this was the case. So, learning how to ride a bike was an extremely difficult task for someone like me. My father made it his mission to be the one to teach me and considering it took days for me to get on the bike with training wheels years before, he knew teaching me how to properly ride a bike was going to be a challenge also.