Personal Narrative: How School Has Affected My Life

Words: 324
Pages: 2

School has always seemed to come easy to me. I was fortunate enough to retain information faster than my peers. I never had to study for hours, or spend much time on one problem. The information I received was embedded into my memory, but I took this for granted. It wasn't until my sophomore year that I realize how easy I had it.
I was diagnosed with brain cancer and my whole world turned. The tumor was the size of a baseball and thankfully they were able to remove it all, but not without consequences. I could still walk, talk, and act the same. There was nothing noticeably wrong with me, it was my thinking that was affected. The combination of numerous radiation treatments and the surgery saved my life, but ended my time of effortless studying. I could no longer retain information like I use to. It started with mistaking my lefts and rights, then being unable to pay attention, escalating to not remembering a chapter of a book I had read five minutes prior.
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The fifteen years I spent relying on my memory was inadequate and school consequently became arduous. I struggled with the most basic algebra problems, reading Animal Farm turned into reading words that had no contextual meaning. Although knowing it would be ineffective, I tried to rush my studying. This was a problem I needed to fix.
To start, I haltingly gave myself more time to acquire information. School presently became less challenging again. Teaching myself to decelerate my learning and understand the material instead of relying on my memory allowed me to overcome this hardship.
This obstacle is not my disability. It has made me more studious and appreciate my education more. I strive today more than I ever did before. My whole world turned, not upside down, but turned upwards towards a new apprehension of myself and willingness to