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Running head: THE GREAT NAÏVE 1

The Great Naïve

Tiffany Sanchez

Chandler Gilbert Community College


THE GREAT NAÏVE 2

The Great Naïve

!!!!! comes from the alarm. You slowly rise out of bed at 6:00 A.M. You look out the

window to see the sky is misted with thick wispy clouds and gold beams of light from the tired

and overused summer sun of the Arizonian valley. You grab whatever you have to wear because

you are going to be a senior in high school, and you tell yourself whatever you have will be

authentic enough for the first day back. You only eat some quickly made oatmeal knowing that it

will be enough because you are finally a half day senior and will be back home in 4 hours instead

of the traditional, 8-hour lower classmen’s school day. Mom and Dad are waiting for you in the

car, so you hop in and off to school you go. They try to talk to you while you mourn with the last

free moments of summer before you enter high school for another year.

As your parents drop you off for school for the 13th consecutive year, you turn your head

up from your phone to the rearview mirror. You can see your father’s brownie batter colored

eyes staring at you with a sheer expression of joy. You don’t even recall seeing his mouth, yet

you know that he is smiling because you can already tell from the pinched corner of his eyes to

his raised cheeks, that he is proud. Both of your parents are proud it’s your last year of legally

being a child. They’re so proud they drive all the way up, as close as can be, to the front of your

first class’s building, the art building. Then the car comes to a complete stop and you both say

your goodbyes! They drive off with the new replacement child, except it’s not really a child, it’s

a dog.

Yes, your father bought a dog for your mother. They say it’s to help with anxiety and

stress, which to any body with a medical degree would make sense because, according to a

“Therapies study, a mere 12-minute visit with a dog lowered blood pressure and anxiety in

patients with heart failure” (Woit, 2012, par 2). But you don’t bother to listen because deep down
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you know that that dogs your replacement. You know that your mother has always had control

over something since the day she was born, so by letting go of you, it was only natural for her to

pick up someone else. She named it Ollie. Ollie is now off with your parents to brunch, while

you are off walking to the Art building.

You stumble into a long blue hued hallway with the sun grazing against the lightly tinted

2 X 6 ft tall window. Your focus gazes across on the patches of light shining through. This is

going to be one of the highlights of the day you tell yourself. You are not to thrilled to go back to

high school after summer, so you try to grasp the little stuff for positive affirmation. You are

halfway through the hall before a tall man with an authoritative walkie talkie chooses to look

down upon you. He grins and makes a joke about the outfit you’re wearing. This is your senior

year, so since you are practically an adult you must not succumb to the insults of others. Yet you

still freeze, because of your uncertainly. As stated in Moss study it’s referred to as “Intolerance

of uncertainty (IU)is the tendency to react negatively to uncertain situations, has been identified

as an important cognitive component of anxiety disorders” (Moss, 2018, p1225). But you were

so naïve your inner critic convinced you that anxiety was a myth and it was all in your head.

Anyways you were always quiet so that was typical for you to do, mental maturity takes longer

than physical maturity, but you didn’t know this that day. He then tells you to find something

else to wear just as the teacher whose class you are heading to pops out from the door behind

him. You have taken her beginning art class before, so you know each other, and she likes you as

a student. She analyzes what’s going on, this man was trying to dress code her precious student,

so she tells the authoritative figure that she has some safety pins to close the space between my

cardigan. He says okay and that was the start of how she took you under her wing.
THE GREAT NAÏVE 4

Mrs. K starts handing you safety pins so you can pin up your beige yellow mixed off

white cardigan but with distress sitting in the back of your mind: embarrassment took up the rest.

You cannot appreciate someone going out of their way for you do not realize that she does not

have to do that, yet you barely managed to say thank you. But it was only the first day, you

would have many more chances to conversate with Mrs. K, but you will make sure to keep that

to a minimum. Not because you think lowly of her but because you think so of yourself, you will

make sure to tell yourself you are Extremely weird, and your inner critic will tell you that people

are going to think that once you open your mouth. You did not know it then, but one of the most

abusive people you’ve ever know, was all in you. This is what is referred to as an “Inner critic:

This is the internal voice that judges us as inadequate.” (downing, 2017, pg50). Every single

comment, harassment, act of unpleasantness is all bubbled up inside you, and you never told

anyone because You told yourself not to.

You are just a high school student, a high school student who is extremely hard on

herself. You expect greatness because that’s all you ever desired growing up in your family.

Greatness is like perfection in your mind. Except to you, greatness exist and you hungered for it.

Because it mattered the most out of everything you believe in, even if you were insecure. This is

going to cause some shyness in your persona which will eventually lead to unspoken words to

people you wished you could have told. You shot so far for greatness before you were even

ready that you missed and ended up full of regret instead. Greatness was always there you just

didn’t know how to unlock it.

Don’t focus on being something you’re not; like being great because you’ll end up

missing what you are or could become. By not appreciating the small things around you, you

cannot truly appreciate yourself as a whole. Because the missing pieces of memories that you
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did not create because you cannot appreciate the free education, the relaxed one hour classes,

someone making your own schedule, or the nice community of help. You are too focused on

trying to be this senior in high school idea in your head that you let opportunities of memories

full of joy disappear, and you can never redeem those memories, but you can always make new

memories. I hope that by reading this you can realize who you truly are.
THE GREAT NAÏVE 6

References

Downing, S (2017). On course strategies for creating success in college and in life,

eighth edition. Boston: Cengage.

Moss, M. (2018). A Randomized Controlled trial of cognitive behavior therapy.

California: Bakersfield

Muckle, J & Lasikiewicz Nicola. (2017). An exploration of the benefits of animal-

assisted activities in undergraduate students in Singapore.

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