Question

Write a 700-1,000 word essay which describes how you overcame adversity, outlining a specific roadblock through which you fought and emerged victorious.

Answer 1

Adversities in life are inevitable truths and we can't help it but what we can consciously put effort on is how we react to these adversities and how we respond to them. This is something which I don't knew or believed in when I was going through a long term adversity in my life but gradually when I started overcoming it, I started developing certain insights which helped me further in fighting with newer and unique problems in life. I have also understood that in life problems will come and at one time we will be filled with multiple problems but we must only attend and try to overcome those problems about which we can do something and for the others let's time do the healing.

In school, in various speech competitions such as impromptu and others, I have been ridiculed by the judges and audiences when I was a kid and that installed stage anxiety in me. After that though with me I developed as a good speaker with good control over words, I never managed to get myself involved in any competitions because of anxiety. This was going like this and I was habituated with my stage anxiety but in college, one of my teachers gave my name for the intercollege debate competition. According to him, my concepts on the subject was really good and he wanted me to put those forward in front of a large audience and through my knowledge help our college in winning the competition. Now, the event was bigger than me as the impression of my college was at stake.

In general, I was someone who used to ignore problems and used to let things go but here that mechanism was not something which would have worked. I was in deep mental conflict for many days but then I decided to take things slow and let myself confront the possibilities. I started gaining more information about the subject of the debate so that my self esteem will be intact in the context of knowledge. After that I asked some of my close friends to indulge in short debates with me in similar topics so that I will be able to speak infront of others and as they were my close friends, I didn't had the fear of being judged or mocked. That experiment went well and I could feel that I was slowly getting less anxious about it. Then, I decided that as the stage is something which is highly associated with my anxiety since childhood, I will need to confront it before the actual debate.

I spoke to my teachers and they helped me by allowing me to practice in the college auditorium. I took some friends and then thought of doing the dummy debate on the stage. Just as I stood on the stage I started getting flashbacks and I couldn't speak. I understood that this won't work out but I did something for which I am really proud of myself and that is I didn't gave up. The next day I went there alone and started speaking on my own. Gradually I got used to the stage and then I usee to put on a head phone with music of audience in the background and used to practise speaking with that noise on. Slowly, my anxiety regarding the stage reduced and me with my friends had the dummy debate after that.

The day arrived and I went up on the stage for the debate. I felt prepared not only for confronting the debaters but also for the audience and the stage. I was nervous and shaky at first but I managed. I knew that this was the best opportunity for me to prove to myself that I am more than kid being ridiculed. I went with the flow and ended up winning the debate. Our college won and I was praised a lot by everyone.

Nowadays, I won't say that my anxiety has completely been resolved but everyday it gets reduced more and more. I have understood few things about overcoming adversities and those are we must accept that there is a problem, we must accept that there are both external and internal aspect of the problem, we must realise that we can't change the external aspects and thus, it's our internal aspects like our attitude towards tye the problem and our efforts which will help us and finally we must never give up and go on trying. We must understand that failing five times doesn't guarantee a failure in the sixth attempt rather an experience of five times helps in the success in the sixth attempt.