I was always a very funny and happy kid, and I had lots of friends. Then, when I turned 12, I started to feel differently. I was upset because I couldn’t do anything at all.

Suddenly, it was almost my thirteenth birthday and my first year of middle school. I was in 7th grade, and I was a completely different person. With everything I did, I was always worried I did something wrong. Every time I went to gym class, I was scared because I couldn’t have any fun. Then it just got worse; all year long, I was always in trouble. I used to be a great kid, no trouble and very sweet.

Then the worst thing happened. I got a helper specialized only for me. Every time I went anywhere, she would follow me and from there the living nightmare began.

I was so mad. I was constantly getting yelled at and sent down to the principal. I didn’t understand why, because that was the first time I was ever bad! Every time I got in trouble, I would flip out. When I finally realized what anxiety was, from that day on everything was terrible. I was always scared to do anything because I was afraid I would be arrested. Every day, I would go down to the principal’s office, crying that I wanted to go home. I was not who I used to be, and suddenly no one wanted to be my friend.

Every day I went to school, it was like being locked in prison.

The teachers were getting very hard on me, and I was scared because they wouldn’t let me leave school early anymore. It was the worst year in my whole school career. When school ended, things got better, but I was scared to go anywhere that summer. When school started again I felt a lot better, but I was still getting in trouble. The principal started threatening me. Every time I did anything, the principal would threaten to kick me out of the school.

I am now in school online and never want to go back to the school building. It’s better that way. The main point to this story was that I got my stress level down over time, and now I’m happier than I’ve been in two years.