Overcoming Personal Obstacles: A Narrative Journal Entry

Write one narrative journal entry about overcoming a specific personal obstacle, selecting from the list of prompts below.

1. Write about a personal experience that forced you to change yourself in a way you can demonstrate convincingly.

2. Describe a moment when you had to put your own needs and desires aside to help someone else; this might have been an experience volunteering, for example.

Friendship with Jessica and joining the school coolest crew

My mother had always warned me about my behavior, but I wouldn't listen. She had even grounded me, but I still found a way of hiding and slipping away from her watch. I am one of the lucky kids in town since my mother works at a company as a personal assistant to the CEO and she receives the benefits that came along with it. She was offered a beautiful house enough to fit her and me since my father was rarely around. My father is a marine army, and so most of the times he is usually not around. I always heard her from my room as they discussed my behavior both at school and at home with my father. Sometimes I pity her since am her only child when I listen to her lamentations to my dad.

I am one of the brightest kids, but it was never so till I started hanging out with the most relaxed group in school. I am not as friendly as my new friend Jessica who always finds a way of charming almost everyone to liking her. Jessica is the cheerleader at school, and every girl at school is envious of her. What I would have never interacted with Jessica wasn't it for the English teacher who put me up to couching her after school so that she could improve on her grades.  Jessica also happens to be my neighbour but Jessica never even bothered to say hi to me. I had accepted that she was way out of my league and she wouldn't find fun with hanging out with me.

After knowing Jessica, we realized that we had so much in common and as a way of saying thank you for making her excel in English paper, she offered that she would introduce me to the squad that was the coolest in school. I bet that was one of the things that were on my wishlist at school. However, people always say that we should be careful what we wish for in life. Joining the group was a massive thing for me, and the squad held a party to welcome me to the group. I had never realized that my age mates had the things the group welcomed me to the crew during a party. Although it was a small party, it felt like a lot of people were present. There were a lot of alcoholic drinks that were bought by Jamie, who was the kid from one of the wealthiest people in the city and there were some drugs. From the party onwards I was always with my squad which consists of 15 people.  The school coolest crew was a special place for anyone to be since it compromised of the students from the wealthy families, cutest girls and handsome boys. I so wanted to be part of that though I couldn't weren't it for Jessica.

We missed a lot of the classes as I escorted my squad to do drugs and alcohol and my grades began to deteriorate quickly and absurdly. Although I didn't do drugs as of yet, I enjoyed some beverages l, and most of the mornings I would be full of a hangover. My mother was called to school severally, and she was so upset about it. The group was making me popular at school, and I began to lose control of my academic work. Wasting time with the group was my new life, and I liked it up until I went home through my bedroom window and found my mom and dad waiting for me. I was embarrassed as they just watched me climb down the window.

My mother and father talked to me for hours. The information they gave me transformed my life forever. They told me the reason why they never had another kid since my mother had fallen off the staircase as she ran to save me from hurting myself with the gas cooker. She had lost her pregnancy at that moment, and she lost her womb as well. They showed me a letter from the school that taught me that if I continued with those grades, I would never have the opportunity to join college. My mother cried as she told me how she got to work at such a company and how she gave up her college education to give me a better future. She never wanted me to miss college as she did.  My dad had left his work of saving a lot of lives to talk to me. I felt their love and concern for me. From that day onwards, I exited the most relaxed group in school and started obeying my mother, and since then my grades have improved tremendously. Am loving being me and not trying to fit in a group of friends since I appreciate and love my parents and want to study hard and pursue my degree in law.