Moving out of your comfort zone.

I decided to write this blog post after auditioning for my last ever school show this week. This is because, although I've been in the shows since year 7, I've never actually auditioned for one. This is because I have a huge fear of singing created by some not very nice people putting me down in the younger years. This year I convinced myself I would audition, and then I woke up on that morning to find my voice had gone. However, I still went ahead and auditioned and realised how much of an idiot I had been by stopping myself the previous 6 years of school!

 

Now, the audition wasn't the greatest and compared to everyone else in the room I felt a lot worse, but I genuinely didn't care for once. All I cared about was that I'd actually stood up and did it for the first time. It didn't matter that I was all croaky, couldn't reach the high notes and had never even heard the song before- I did it, and I was proud. I still don't know what the outcome is, but to be blunt, I don't really mind. I'm writing this post in the hope that at least one person will try and leave there comfort zone, for me it has always been singing in big groups behind my extremely talented friends, for other people it might be even getting involved in shows, or art, or anything that you think you'll enjoy but are too scared to try.

 

Since a very young age I've always been a very anxious, panicky person. As a child I was often on edge and wasn't extremely relaxed. When I moved to secondary school this seemed to move on to being extremely self conscious, shy and quiet, and recently it's amounted to me staying away from a lot of social situations because I'm just too scared to try and be involved. Shyness and anxiety is extremely restricting and it can feel like you just can't get out of it. So I tried to push myself in a situation where I knew everybody, the staff and students, to actually try and achieve a small goal.

 

I know a lot of people will think it's stupid to be scared of little things like singing in a room of school friends, or even going out to the cinema, but for others this is their daily reality. It's difficult for anyone to move away from their comfort zones, but it's important to do so. Even if I still end up in the chorus this year, I'll still know that I at least went for it this time, and made the most of my last year in school.

 

So whatever your fears and anxieties are- whether it be a big thing like performance or something smaller like getting on public transport alone- just know that you're not alone and you can take small steps to get over them. I still have a long way to go to get to a "confident Katie" but little steps just help to get there. I hope this has helped at least one person to know that you can get over fears in order to achieve goals.

 

Lots of Love,

Katie xxx