I love comfort. But comfort isn’t always the best thing. Pushing past my limits is important to my own personal development because if I immerse myself in comfort, I will never have the chance to try something new.

I find pushing myself like climbing to the top of a ladder. In order to get to the top of the ladder, I need to start from the bottom. As I get closer to the top, it gets scarier, but I can’t give up or I’ll never reach the top. Choosing to stay on the bottom step and never climb up because I’m scared doesn’t get me anywhere. It’s the same with staying in my comfort zone. If I’m too scared to try new things, then I’ll never achieve anything in life.

In eighth grade, I was too scared to participate in my math class. I’m naturally a shy person, and I try not to talk during classes because I don’t want to be wrong. I wasn’t smart enough to keep up with everyone, and it ended up being the smart people who were dominant in the class. In first semester, I only participated in class discussions three times and my teacher didn’t even know my name. In the third quarter, I didn’t push myself. It was the teacher pushing everyone to participate. He said that the people who participated more tended to have a higher grade in the class, so he was making everyone participate, so the overall grades would be higher. All of the students had to say something in a class discussion twice a week or get a bad work habits grade. Of course, I had to participate because I didn’t want a bad work habits score. My grades went up, and my teacher started noticing me more. Had I not been pushed, my grades probably would not have gone up. I also made some more friends in that class because people started noticing that I was a part of the class and not someone invisible.

One of the times I pushed myself and did not regret it at all was in the seventh grade. It was the first day of school in my math and science class. I had no friends in my class and was really scared I was going to be alone that year. Luckily, my sister’s friend’s sister was in that class, and she seemed pretty lonely, too. I made myself talk to her in an attempt to make new friends, and we ended up becoming really close. I don’t like meeting new people, so this was a huge step for me. We realized we had all of our classes together and that gave us a lot of time to let our friendship blossom. Because of that friend, I’ve also become a better person and so has she. If I hadn’t pushed myself, I don’t know where I would be right now. She introduced me to some of my current friends, so pushing myself that first day in seventh grade was really important to my future.

Overall, pushing past my limits is really important. Staying in my comfort zone isn’t good because I can never mentally develop. If I push myself and try different things, I can find something I really enjoy. So in conclusion, I believe that everyone should push past their limits. Try talking to a new person today. Speak up in a class you struggle in. Try new things that are out of your comfort zone. You might find something you really enjoy.