"Untitled" by Alyssa C

I grew up extremely shy with terrible anxiety, I was lonely all the time, and bullied because I did not fit in with the “it” crowd. I either dressed weird, wore too much black, or my nose was flat, and even to the fact that I weighed more than average girls, or I had a really awkward laugh… the list goes on and on.  In high school, I still had tough insecurity issues that affected my relationships with friends and family.  It even affected me academically, and I lost hope and motivation to do anything at all. I lost many of my relationships with people all around me, and what was worse was that I lost myself as well. I realized I could not spend the rest of my high school career moping around with no hope. I knew this was not me; it was not the person I saw myself to become. I started to gain courage and eventually learned to talk to people more easily. I honestly feel like my sense of humor is what got people to like me, for example, when things got awkward, I just made people laugh!

Anyway, by my senior year, I had made friends with many wonderful people. I ran for Class President and during election time, all I thought about was, “how ridiculous, I would never win.”  Three best friends, couple of posters and flyers, and a few hundred votes later, “Congratulations to your new Senior Class President, Alyssa Che.”

It took me until the end of four years to figure out myself, to have a grip on who I truly am, and how? By being Class President. I know it might just sound like a stupid title to you, but to me, it was a title for myself. It let me learn to be proud of myself, it taught me to believe that if I put my mind to it, it really could happen, and as cheesy as that is, it isn’t really true unless you’ve experienced it firsthand yourself. I gained self-confidence, knowing that my class trusts me with major responsibilities to make our senior year the best it could be. The confidence others had in me gave me such a huge boost to become who I am at this moment. I turned into an outgoing and non- insecure girl, I learned to manage my priorities and time better, and most importantly, I learned to love myself and gain the strength to pursue my life’s goals. I sound like I might just be a common girl that learned her lesson, but for me, this lesson was not something common, it changed my life completely. It changed my perspectives and it kept me from falling down low when I knew I had goals that were way up high.

Out of everything I learned, I realized I was a people-pleaser my whole life, which was my original mistake in the first place. When I held the position as a leader, I realized I could not please everyone. I learned that I had to trust myself to make the best choice and that is when I truly found happiness and I am proud to say I have never been happier with where I stand right now. J