Paúl Rosales

Writing and Rhetoric: Assignment #2

Personal Narrative
14/12/2020

My personal experience in academia

“My most fearful educational situation”

Have you ever been so excited about approving a course that you didn´t think about
the consequences of exaggerating your relieved behavior for next semester? Yes, that
happened to me. Let me introduce myself, my name is Paul, I am 19 years old and I
basically ruined a part of my life. You know, I made a mistake, I have never been so
confident about something in my entire life and that led me down a path full of depression
and stress. Having a relaxed behavior throughout a whole semester was not a great idea, in
fact, it was the worst decision I have ever made and there are three events that led me to
that point.

First, the beginning of my story happened during my second semester in college. I

was told before, during my first semester, that the professor that was going to teach
constitutional law next semester was the hardest one to approve in the entire faculty, but I
had no option to leave the class because of my schedule. His name was Juan Francisco
Guerrero, the most feared professor in constitutional law, it is mere presence transformed
the environment into a serious one. The first day of class he told us that only 10% of this
class is going to pass the course and 90% of the class is either going to leave or fail. He was
not wrong, 90% of the class did leave at the end. During the whole semester he was very
strict. And, to be honest he is the best professor I have ever had in my entire life. He made
us realize the importance of our constitution and law in our daily lives. For example, law is
always present even for smaller things such as buying a candy or for big things such as a
divorce trial. One of the most important lessons that Juan Francisco taught us was that only
the most strong and perseverant students make it till the end of this career. After those
words, the feeling in the air changed, it felt more serious and competitive. Because of that, I
decided to be a hardworking student throughout that whole semester, I was so nervous
about thinking of the possibility of failing the class, I consider myself to be a good student
and just by thinking about this, it really made me feel depressed.
Paúl Rosales
Writing and Rhetoric: Assignment #2
Personal Narrative
14/12/2020

Second, the most exciting moment in my entire life. The final exam of my
constitutional law class was about to begin, around 8 of us made it to the final trench from
among 26 students, we were all very nervous. My performance during my final exam was
phenomenal at the end and off course, I passed the course. Only seven of us made it and it
felt so good. During the following months I was very confident, I felt I was able to do
anything. For example, I took summer classes after that semester and I ended up with
excellent grades. Also, I gained about 300 dollars working for a law firm. Unfortunately, it
all went downhill from this point, I entered third semester and I was very confident at that
point and that mentality ruined everything.

Third, the most tragic part of my life. Being very confident it is not always a good
thing, after second semester, I was very tired and I did not want to do anything related to
college in general. Well, what can I say, as I mentioned before the mentality I had
throughout that whole semester made me the most irresponsible person, I tried to make my
assignments and exams like I knew everything. For instance, for many of my exams I tried
to study one or two hours before, with incomplete notes and barely knowing the topics.
Even though I did not pass many of my courses with less than a B, there was one course
that really ruined my career and my life in general. I needed to take a course of civil law
during my third semester and after every single one of my exams I received terrible grades
because I did not study for any of them. My most feared situation happened. I failed a
course and I was forced to repeat it, I have never failed a course in my entire life. I felt
broken, useless and depressed. In the following months, my life was miserable but I needed
to catch up with my friends that did pass the class to not feel bad and because it was my
responsibility to do it. After almost 6 months, I am finally studying with my classmates
again and achieving many goals while doing it. This memory really taught me a lot of
things and influenced me to grow as a better person. For example, I am not arrogant
anymore and I am more responsible than ever. I am not saying I´m perfect, but if you are
not a hardworking person nowadays you are not going to achieve anything special.
Paúl Rosales
Writing and Rhetoric: Assignment #2
Personal Narrative
14/12/2020

In brief, although I made a mistake and considering all the events that happened,
starting with all the pressure that my second semester had on me, followed by all the effort
I put into other activities, this made me realize that pushing myself too much it is always
going to end up really bad. This is not an obvious and direct lesson, this is a factual
statement. I felt miserable after that situation happened, pushing myself too much ended up
with me being very irresponsible. Nevertheless, this is what life is all about, I need to keep
pushing myself in order to be a good professional and a good person, too. My relationship
with academia in general is just beginning, but I only have one thing in mind and that is to
hard work to achieve any future goal.