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Diana Alfaro
Dr. Ramos
ENC1101
10 May 2022
Prompt: Many students have personal issues that interfere with their learning in college.
Consider what one of your potential obstacles may be and discuss how you may overcome it.
Overcoming College Obstacles
According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, over 40 million adults in the U.S.
(19.1%) have an anxiety disorder. College can be an exciting journey for students, but it can also
be a challenging and overwhelming time. Almost everyone has personal issues at home that
constantly distract them and prevent them from a quality and fruitful study sessions. Finding a
solution to overcome obstacles in college is essential in reaching someone’s hopes and dreams.
Students often report things that take away their focus, and some common examples are: jobs,
house chores, children, and/or pets. My potential obstacles that interfere with my learning in
college are my pets and struggling with anxiety. Learning to overcome these issues are important
in my academic study.
In my case, is really hard to stay focused; I have two dogs that require a lot of attention. My
dogs for instance are always being rascals and one of them, “Charlie” is usually asking for
attention. The other one, “Marci” is oftentimes stealing things like shoes, socks, pens, pencils,
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any plastic, or anything else she can chew and destroy. Marci is a rascal, we got her in Miami
from a pet store, and we decided to purchase a puppy rather than adopting simply, because
sometimes dogs from shelters are not really healthy. A while ago, we had adopted a puppy, she
already had gut problems and had to have surgery. A year later we took her to a lake and she
contracted a very rare disease called Pythium Insidiosum, which ended up morphing her small
intestine into a cancer-like tissue; that prevented her intestine to function the way it is supposed
to. The veterinarian advised us to treat her with surgery, but emphasized that she was not out of
the water yet and that the illness might come back. The time management that I try to have
between taking care of my dogs and my school work has worked for me in conquering this
obstacle.
Adding to this, I have my anxiety which I struggle with daily; mostly due to school and
wanting to do good and get good grades, my future depends on it, so most times the pressure
accumulates and it distracts me from staying focused and studying for long periods of time.
Anxiety is a very disabling condition that we all suffer from to one extent, some might have it
mild and some might have crippling anxiety, and everyone deals with it differently. In my case, I
overthink inside my head and the negative thoughts overtake me and I forget about what I was
doing right then and there. Anxiety, also keeps me awake at night sometimes, and as one would
imagine studying while being sleepy or tired is really hard; since all you are thinking about is
going back to bed. I have been trying to retrain my brain to focus back on positive things, but it
is a hard process that requires being aware that you are derailing from the objective at hand.
Myself being fortunate to have a supportive husband who usually takes care of the dogs,
and if I am busy or tired he will cook and take care of the house, and my anxiety stays relatively
controlled using medication. If I am gonna be busy with school work; he will pay attention to the
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dogs, which are in all honesty very affection demanding and get bored too sometimes. My
husband will entertain them outside in the yard, so I have the time and space I need to work with
relatively few distractions. I also try to learn how to study and that includes taking breaks for
every 45 minutes of studying as studies have suggested. Rest is as important as hard work, and I
make sure to take the schedule breaks when they are due. My studying has greatly improved in
the last few weeks because I do not burn myself out.
Overall, staying focused and overcoming distractions is a very personal issue we all have at
home, work, or anywhere else we might be doing a study session. Overcoming those distractions
should start with identifying what the distractions are, and then how to solve that problem,
isolate the cause, or even isolating oneself. My issues that interfere with my learning in college
have been taking care of my pets and struggling with anxiety. By having a good support system
and being aware that I have self-control over my anxiety; I can overcome these obstacles and be
successful in college. In the middle of every obstacle, there are challengings and struggles and
overcoming them is worth the fight. It not only makes an individual fearless, but life becomes
much more fascinating and bold.