This year is my first year in high school, and as opposed to just going to our town's public high school I'm attending a preparatory school a few towns over. Prior to my high school experience I was in somewhat of a safe zone. Most of everyone was friendly with me, and I knew every single person in my grade (of about 300 or so). As soon as I entered high school, I had to meet a whole lot of people (I now know approximately 60% of my grade, again of about 300 or so students). Now meeting friends wasn't too hard, but the lack of girls (oh yeah, I forgot to mention it's an all guys school) was a downer. Especially due to my new school schedule (get up at 6, get home at 6 every day but Friday, where it's around 3) in addition to the martial arts and guitar I'm taking outside of school, made it hard to get together with the friends I grew up with. Now that I'm in such a different environment, I feel that I've grown as a person due to the spike in social and academic exercise I'm getting. I now want to strive to do well in school, and try new things, such as guitar. We get crazy break times though, our school year is only 160 days. I think we get something like a 2 and a half week winter break. :j
I just had to move. Fortunately, it was only a few minutes away from my old house. So, in conclusion, I never really had to. Huh. Maybe when I go to college in a few years from now? I don't know, to be honest.
@Cave Story (since IPBoard sucks at quotes) That's wonderful to hear, and I'm glad you're doing well, but that does sound pretty darn hard to deal with. I just got a job and that alone makes me feel like I have no time.
My job has taken me out of my comfort zone a bit. I'm still rather shy and am getting used to some of the bitches I work with, but I'm handling people better than I thought. I generally get good customers and make conversation with them, and learn a few things as well along the way. Having a wonderful conversation with a customer puts a smile on my face, and I hope one day to be known as "that sweet girl" and have people look forward to having me check them out. I have days where I feel lazy and don't wanna go to work, but so far I've never had a day where I've said "I hate my job and don't wanna go"
@Cave Story (since IPBoard sucks at quotes) That's wonderful to hear, and I'm glad you're doing well, but that does sound pretty darn hard to deal with. I just got a job and that alone makes me feel like I have no time.
My job has taken me out of my comfort zone a bit. I'm still rather shy and am getting used to some of the bitches I work with, but I'm handling people better than I thought. I generally get good customers and make conversation with them, and learn a few things as well along the way. Having a wonderful conversation with a customer puts a smile on my face, and I hope one day to be known as "that sweet girl" and have people look forward to having me check them out. I have days where I feel lazy and don't wanna go to work, but so far I've never had a day where I've said "I hate my job and don't wanna go"
The first time that I can remember beginning to break out of my comfort zone was when I went to my first prom, went dancing with my girlfriend, and I "might have" purposely put my hand a bit lower down than her waist.
Of course, now that I'm almost 25, I can't really think of having a comfort zone anymore. Though, there are some things I don't do because they are just stupid, and it has nothing to do with comfort. It's more like, being socially proper, or something. I still don't pick up hitchhikers, because they could murder me, and I don't go streaking down town because I could get arrested. Ya know, stuff like that.
Yeah on that note, having Jacob and Wedge stay at my house was definitely out of my comfort zone since I don't really like having people there. But I guess it all worked out?
I had to preform a digital rectal examination (I needed to put my finger in the patient's anus, checking out the feces on the glove etc....). The internist said that it need to be done before he comes to examine the patient furter. When he arrived he did it himself too regardless, so the patient was "tortured" for nothing the first time. I had some not so pleasant thoughts about him: making me do that yucky thing is not so bad if it medically necessary, but why invain?
I had to preform a digital rectal examination (I needed to put my finger in the patient's anus, checking out the feces on the glove etc....). The internist said that it need to be done before he comes to examine the patient furter. When he arrived he did it himself too regardless, so the patient was "tortured" for nothing the first time. I had some not so pleasant thoughts about him: making me do that yucky thing is not so bad if it medically necessary, but why invain?
A young "newbie" doctor in the hospital like me who is just before his specialization of internal medicine has only one right towards the elder: "to remain silent" lol
Like Cave Story, one of my somewhat recent breaks out of my comfort zone was the beginning of my Freshman year of High school. Quite a lot of things changed in my daily routine that day. In some ways, my experience was similar to his, but in other ways, it was quite different. Only once I began High School did I realize how much I was taking for granted how much of a breeze Middle School was. It is important to note that I am homeschooled. I could go on and on about how superior homeschooling is in almost every way to regular school, but there are a couple disadvantages when you go by our rules. And on my first day of High School, the biggest disadvantage hit me where it really hurts. The day before my first day, I got a sore throat, and the following morning, I got sick, as predicted. One of these disadvantages to homeschooling by our rules is that you have to do school even when you're sick. Years before, my mom always endeavored to make sick days easy on us, but I was met with an ever-so-pleasant surprise that the easier on you part of that rule goes out the window once you hit High School. Not only was I hit by a series of more rigorous and numerous series of courses, but sleeping in due to trying to recover really bit me in the hindquarters by losing a huge chunk of the day the first time, as well as the next few days. My Freshman year of High School was off to a pretty bad start.
Some not-so-important details on my Freshman year of High School:
Even after I got better, I was far from used to my new schedule. The new subjects required a lot more time and energy than I thought necessary, and I felt rather indignant at times that my mom had me taking college level courses for History and Biology (the latter for which she purchased a different book not long after the school year started, but even that was still pretty hard), and I learned during the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year what it's like to hardly have any free time during the week, and have to wisely use the free time you had during the weekend. The only circumstances under which I got much free time at all during the week would be if I gave into the temptation of staying up late, and facing the consequences the next morning of being tired, which would result in me having to take a nap some time during the day to be able to operate, which would ultimately lead to me having less time than I would have had if I hadn't stayed up late. Though I didn't like this at all, it was the first step in improving my time-management skills.
My mom gives us our birthdays and the days surrounding it off. The weekend of my birthday in 2011 was the first real breather I had from my first bout of Highschool. Those free days were glorious, having so much free time during that weekend, that I got into Cave Story modding. After the weekend of my birthday ended, things basically went back to its old hectic self, and school didn't ease up again until Thanksgiving break. Though once thanksgiving ended, my sister began having play practice that ended pretty late, resulting in her having to sleep late, and this caused my mom to have us not do a lot of subjects that we normally do together, which gave me a lot of extra free time from late November unto the beginning of Christmas break.
It was nice having that long breather throughout the whole of December, but once school started back up in January 2012, things got even worse than they were before Thanksgiving break of 2011. As anyone who lives in the United States and is either currently going through High School and plans on going to college, or has been through High School and is in, or has gone through college would know, one of the requirements to get into college is to have taken two years of a foreign language. Since I plan to be a mechanical engineer, there is a possibility that I'll be sent on business trips to China by what ever company I'm working for to help ensure the manufacturing process of the company's product is going correctly. For that reason, my mom chose for me to take two years of Chinese. In mid January, my mom discovered a class I could take on Chinese that would take place in two phases by the same teacher that could count as two years of foreign language for High School credit. The first phase would be Chinese I, which would begin in early February and end some time in May. And the second phase, Chinese II, would take place from late August to some time later.
These Chinese I classes took place once every Thursday afternoon at our local college. It was quite a new experience for me to be significantly younger than everyone else in the classroom, and I was feeling pretty awkward the first few classes. The first one wouldn't have been so horrendous, had we been directed to the right building, and not been fifteen minutes late to class, by which time they began saying full sentences, and I was able to offer no participation whatsoever in that first class. The entire first class was spent sitting quietly in the back hoping nobody would notice me. Thankfully, the teacher asked very, very little participation of me that first class, and was sympathetic of my late arrival and being behind. Eventually, using my precious, hard-earned free time during the week ends, I caught up with all the studying necessary for that Chinese class, and, forgive me for my lack of modesty, won over my classmates one-by-one, and eventually developed a strong bond with my teacher, often receiving special recognition for my performance. Though this was all in the midst of a very busy and stressful schedule that took place between February - May 2012. On nights before a Chinese class, I would often have to stay up until midnight doing homework for it, as I'd have not had time during other parts of the week to do it. When my last Chinese class ended (this was some time after 175 day school year ended), it was a huge sigh of relief to finally be done with the last remains of that dreaded schedule.
Sorry for the huge wall of text, but that was such a horrible experience for me that I just had to tell it to someone. There are still some more details, but this is probably enough to get across the message that a few months of this kind of schedule could change any High School Freshman.
I was never outright angry at my mom, but I was definitely frustrated with her. During times of great stress, I spent several minutes dwelling on the thought that it was because of her that I was put under this much pressure, and wanting to blame my situation on her for assigning me all this, and she could definitely tell that I felt this way during a very serious conversation we had near the home stretch of the school year where I ranted on things I felt were unreasonable and that I felt very few other students were faced with. I eventually forgave my mom for assigning me so much school work, and I knew that she did it because she loves me, and that she wants me to succeed. Though I refused to admit it at the time, my first year of High School taught me valuable time-management skills, helped me work more efficiently at school work, and beefed up my anti-procrastination willpower. This step outside of my comfort zone prepared me for what was to come in mid August through October of my Sophomore year of High School: Chinese II
Soon after my Sophomore year of High School began, so did Chinese II classes. I was actually looking forward to them at first, as a bond had formed between me and my teacher, so I was excited to see her again. I even told my mom that I wanted to take it. I had suspected that Chinese II would be harder than Chinese I. Maybe during the hardest days it might reach twice as hard as Chinese II, I thought. As it turned out, once we hit the third class, it was three times as hard. The most intense days of my Freshman year shy in comparison to the amount of stress Chinese II brought me. Most of my school work at home was pretty reasonable, I felt. But Chinese II completely made up for that with usually three times as much homework as Chinese I brought, and classes twice a week instead of once. Being in the classroom and interacting was actually pretty fun and stress-free, but the homework and necessary amount of studying had me studying three hours a day at absolute minimum. Even with all the "exercise" I got from my Freshman year, I was pushed beyond my limits by this college level course that had me finishing all my school work almost every day either just in time for bed, or much later than I should have gone to bed. Even though I was pushed beyond my limits by Chinese II, it would have hit me a lot harder than it would have, had I not gone through what I did during my Freshman year. The skills I learned from it were essential in preventing me from collapsing onto the floor and dying while I was studying for the next Chinese II class.
TL;DR
Taking college level courses, making the best of unsatisfactorily low amounts of time, and needing to really study hard in order to get good grades on tests were new challenges that I was faced with during what I've experienced so far in High School and took me far beyond what I considered my comfort zone at the end of Middle School, but they have without a doubt strengthened and prepared me for what is to come in college.
I'm in French Immersion (woo canada) so I don't need to worry about that kind of thing. Sounds tough.
Anyway, the biggest breach of my comfort zone was joining these forums. I knew exactly what would happen if I acted my age, so joining was tough. It took me a couple days to decide. After joining, I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life: my first week here. God. I joined to make a bump that was essentially spam that was continuing on an old conversation. Ugh. I got banned pretty soon. That's when I read the stickies. All of them. That made me realize what I had been doing. For a while, I did well. Until IPBoard. I was getting infractions I had no idea about! When I got banned again, it was hard for me to pipe up on IRC and ask why the hell I had been banned. This led to a big long SRS BSNS discussion on IRC, which I think is where I truly regrew my comfort zone to include the forums.
Also, going on IRC for the first time. And also while I was banned. Difficult stuff. But not any more, of course.
