Personal Narrative Essay

How time flies! who would have thought that the spring semester will eventually come to end. The beginning of the semester was not something I would want to experience ever again. I had a lot of challenges that made me almost want to quit. The challenges ranged from airport delays to the winter weather and to the numerous classwork and assignments waiting to be done almost every day.

I had earlier bought my flight ticket to the united states couple of days before the semester began. It was going to be my first flight outside of my continent, Africa.  After, purchasing the ticket I was so exhilarated to know that I will be going to study in the US, little did I know that the joy was going to be cut short by some eventualities. I got to the airport on the day of the departure with some friends. At the gate, I was directed to meet with the emigration officers in one section of the airport, I went straight to the officers and gleefully greeted them while handing my ticket to one of them. He reluctantly took it and said ‘’come back tomorrow you are not travelling today.’’ I demanded to know the reason why I was not going to travel that day. He got furious and thundered “obey before complain, come back tomorrow I said.’’ I was so sad and embarrassed. I later joined my friends where they were waiting for me and narrated the ordeal to them. We called my parents and they encouraged me to take a room at the airport for the night. That night, while we were still at the airport, I decided to walk into the customer care section to make inquiries , and there I discovered that the flight was cancelled due to cloudy weather forecast. Well, I was hopeful since I will be travelling in less than twenty-four hour. All hopes were dashed when I again learned we were not flying the next day. This continued for the next five days and by then classes had begun.  By the time we were boarding the flight on the sixth day, all the joy of travelling to the US had been dissipated and been replaced with sadness and uncertainty. However, right there on board, I determined that I will never miss anymore classes. I was going to attend all my classes and get good grades in all of them, that was my resolve.

we arrived Chicago airport the next day because we had eleven hours laid over at Istanbul. Oh my! It was winter! And the cold was by no means comparable to what obtains in Africa. As soon as we alighted, I managed to pull out my jacket from my hand luggage to keep myself warm. It did not do a nice job though, as I was still shivering inside the jacket. I was to go to Greyhound park to take a bus heading to Green Bay, but I did not know my way around. Some good Samaritans who saw me shivering and struggling with my luggage, helped with it and led me to the park. It was late by the time we got there and all the buses for Green Bay had all left. I had to sleep at the park that night with the cold dealing with me. When we arrived Green Bay the following day, it was snowing, that was my first time to see it snow, it was a beautiful site, even though it was very cold.  The cold was more intense than what I experienced at Chicago. I could hardly feel my skin, and was literally frozen, and because I am allergic to cold I started having severe chest pain due to the cold air I was taking in. By the next day, I had developed blisters all over my ears- frostbite. This was one of the times I felt like going back home. I was taken to Walmart by a staff in the international center to purchase a much thicker winter jacket, a pair of boot and hand gloves to help combat the intense cold. Although, I was always kitted in my winter regalia, the cold was getting the better part of me and I could hardly get out of bed to prepare for classes. But my resolve to attend all my classes and get good grades always pushed me out of the bed to the bathroom every morning. Eventually, it stopped snowing, and the weather started becoming warm. I took a deep sigh of relief at this development.

Having arrived school late, I had piles of notes to copy and lots of assignments to turn in. For me, this spring semester was particularly challenging because I had to struggle between copying previous notes attending classes and writing previous assignments combined with current ones. I also had problems locating my lecture halls as everywhere was completely strange (I missed the orientation program). I missed my way couple of times and got redirected to my intended destination. In some of my classes, some students were very unwilling to let me have their notes for few hours so that I could go over the lectures I missed. On the other hand, my laptop was behaving silly and I was finding it difficult to go online to read up materials uploaded on snoodle. With these, the semester appeared daunting, but I was as determined as ever to excel in all my classes. Although there were couple of times I wished I could quit and return home. But then, in the innermost part of my mind, I knew I had to give birth to my unborn child, my goal!  and it must not be a still birth. Yes, my goal for the spring semester was to pass all my courses with A’s. I had refrained myself from participating in extracurricular activities for the semester, partly because I wanted to be on same page with the rest of the class and partly because I wanted to get acquainted with the system and the people. I spent couple of sleepless night trying to clear backlogs of assignments and preparing for the next day’s classes. The midterm exams soon came, I worked hard for the exam and got really good grades except for one course that I earned a B. I was not pleased with the B, So I met with the instructor to know how I could do better in subsequent exams. she advised me to get a tutor, and I did get one immediately. This paid off because I got to understand the course better and earned an A in the second midterm exam. It was not easy I must confess, especially when I had to go for tutoring eleven o’clock at night. Nevertheless, I cared less as my eyes and my mind were constantly focused on earning good grades and becoming better academically. This is the last week of the spring semester, and I am happy with what I have learned and the grades I have earned so far.

In conclusion, it was not just enough to be inspired by my determination to excel in my classes, I had to confront all my obstacles with actions and commitments. Imagine waiting in the airport for five days, sustaining frostbite and even falling down many times on the snowed floor, and trying to finish up current and backlogs of assignment while also attending all my classes. All these, made me to believe that success is actually ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration.