5.

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal

growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Third Times the Charm

Emma Curtius

Beads of sweat formed on my arms, as I walked into one of my first days at a new

therapy office. Third times the charm, right? Walking through the door, I immediately get

overwhelmed with the sounds of white noise across the rooms. I meet a red-headed therapist who

guides me to a room for the session. One question always strikes me when I head to her room,

“what will I be doing in the future?” Anxiety has affected me since the sixth grade. I had panic

attacks every day in middle school and eventually made my parents realize it wasn’t just stomach

problems, it was anxiety. In my eighth and ninth-grade years, I went to a therapist who did not

help me. I then switched to another therapist at the same office but again, it did not help. Over

the years, this had stopped me from opening up with my family and friends about what I was

dealing with and it made me step back from social situations. I was still afraid of what I would

do with my life if I couldn’t surpass the anxiety. I sat on the soft couch loaded with pillows and

began our hour-long session. She talked soothingly to me and made me draw a graph and rate

everything in my life; school, family, friends and of course, anxiety. It surprised me how much I

didn’t think about things in my life and how I could make it better. Once making the rainbow-

colored graph, she examined it and started talking about my connections and relationships with

others. It wasn’t a problem I had thought, but it seemed as though I never opened up with many

of my peers because of my anxiety and trust issues. I notice that many of my connections with

family or friends weren’t as strong as I hoped them to be, rating those areas to be at six or seven
out of ten. I knew the only way for these ratings to go up were to change my viewing on trust

between my sisters, my mom and dad, and my best friends. As time went on, I started opening up

to my parents more about situations and talked to my sister more frequently. I also started to go

out more often with people I felt comfortable with and created better relationships with my

friends.

Beads of sweat to pure happiness. I guess third time is a charm.