Personal Narrative Example essay for CSN

Beals 1 Wesley Beals Professor Kaylee Baucom English 101 27 January 2022 The Best Two Years Most things young adults from the ages to 18 to 24 are pursuing an education, working, or pursuing social relationships. Not many think about leaving home and family to go to a location that they do not get to choose in order to serve the people there in whatever way that those people need. Yet over 60,000 young adults put their lives on hold to go and do that exact thing, and I was one of them, who had the glorious opportunity to serve the people in southwestern Washington. Despite all the sacrifices that I made to go and serve the people of Washington, I am glad for the opportunity I had to serve and I look back and call my mission the best two years of my life thus far. My mission allowed me to learn more about how different people perceive the world and meet tons of different people that will be forever be etched into my personal history. My mission taught me powerful, life-changing lessons that have changed me and influenced me to this day. One in particular came at the very beginning of my mission about opposition in all things and staying the course despite that opposition. From the moment of receiving my mission call email to me entering the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, there was lots of chaotic excitement. I was scrambling to gathering all my clothes and other things I would need up in Washington. Every day, except Sunday, was filled with me going with one of my family member and shopping. It was especially chaotic because of the short-time frame in which it all had to get done, a short three Beals 2 weeks. That excitement was certainly mixed with uncertainty of what was ahead and if I was up for the task. As the day of my drop-off drew closer, there was a certain darkness that started creeping into my heart. The night before I got dropped off, I could not sleep as thoughts kept racing across my mind. Those thoughts grew more intense as my mom woke me so that we could start our long drive to Provo. That whole drive I could not sleep because of my incessant thoughts racing in my mind. I felt wired. I attempted to read in order to find some relief from my racing mind, but I was only reading the words on the page. My eyes skimmed and jumped all over the pages. My capacity to focus was non-existent. I questioned if I was truly ready and even if I was doing the right thing. Would I make a positive impact? What if I fail to help anyone? What if I never learn to do it right? What if I cannot do it? As a result my thoughts racing from my nervous mind, my stomach churned and my body trembled. After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived in Provo and stopped at an IHOP for breakfast since we were early for me to be dropped off. There was even some family from Idaho that were there to see me one last time before I left for 2 years. I was not feeling well enough to eat, but since I was offered a meal on the house, I decide to try. I only got a small stack of pancakes and slowly ate it. The food only aggravated my already unsettled stomach and so after only getting half way through the pancakes I stopped. Many of my family asked if I was nervous and if I was doing okay. I replied honestly saying that I was not feeling well. As a result, my dear, sweet mother hugged me and told me that it was going to be okay which slightly put me at ease. While we were at the IHOP, my stomach was screaming at me. As a result, I got up from the table and went to the restroom. While I was in the restroom. I prayed for relief from the insufferable nervousness and doubt I felt. I pleaded with God for the strength to keep going. Beals 3 Despite that, my stomach still continued to rage and the doubts kept coming. After that, my mom, my mom’s friend, my brothers and I started our short drive from IHOP to the MTC. Nothing really changed during that drive. We pulled up to where I was going to be dropped off and I and my mom quickly hopped out of the car. There were other missionaries waiting there to help me with my bags and so we popped open the trunk. They started to grab my suitcases, giving me and my mom a moment to say good bye. It was an abrupt good bye because I was nervous while trying to act strong and I did not want to give my mom a moment to start crying. I hugged her for 5 seconds and said a quick goodbye. I followed the other missionaries and did not look behind me because I wanted to keep my composure for my family. As I started to follow the other missionaries after the most awkward and abrupt goodbye of my life, the strangest thing happened immediately. I felt the questions stop coming; my stomach stopped churning; and the overbearing and dark feeling of uncertainty dissipated. For the first moment in the last 12 hours, I felt like I could breath, like I belonged, and that there was a reason to be there as a missionary. All of these things left quicker than they came and that is when I learned the first lesson that would be key for my mission. That lesson being that when someone is doing the right thing there will always be opposition from the outside. That opposition can be overbearing, but as the person presses forward that darkness and uncertainty fades as glorious light fills every spot that felt abysmally dark. This lesson would be a key lesson that would serve me well and provide me hope in the midst of the many trials and struggles through my mission. Missions, despite being full of happiness and joy because you are focused on serving and helping others, are not easy. There are days where my companions and I would get rejected by lots of people, some people were antagonistic, and some days never went our way. Add to all that the fact that it would be gray, Beals 4 rainy, and windy when we would do our work most of the time because we were in Washington. Yet I stayed and served despite the many odds stacked against me, day in and day out. All because of this one lesson. Every time something would happen, I found that when I stuck it out there would evenutally be sunshine that would part the gray clouds of the day and I would know I was on the right path. My mission president, a man full of wise counsel, said it best, that when we are moving towards things that are right and true in our lives, there will be opposition. This opposition is there to dissuade us from our course and halt our progress if we let it. If, however, we continue on the right course despite the challenges, we will feel the opposition slowly dissipate, and be replaced with glorious light and confirmation that we are going the right way. We become a stronger, more refined person. This is a lesson that I use to this day. For when the world around me fills with darkness, I know that I must keep pressing forward until I find the pillar of glorious light that shows I was on the right path.