In Kate Chopin’s short story, The Story of an Hour, a young woman, Louise Mallard, experiences confinement from her marriage and her illness. In the …show more content…
We tend to restrict ourselves with our high expectations which ultimately leads to self-despair. I used to feel like I should be perfect; get good grades, be the nicest person in the world, always be happy, and make my parents proud. Like as if that was realistic. Other people’s accomplishment set the bar of my expectations higher and higher and whenever I fail at anything my self esteem just kept lowering and lowering. I confined myself with my expectations of being perfect. Surrounding myself with friends that always seemed to gloat about their grades and mock me with my inability to comprehend such simple ideas restricted me from changing my outlook on how I perceive any situation that was given to me. I hated feeling inadequate. It wasn’t until my grandmother visited and gave me a lecture about self-care. She talked to me about how I should always remember to put my health first—to put me first. At first, I didn’t understand what she was talking about. Isn’t that a bit selfish? I thought. It was later on that I realized the true meaning of her words. My expectations were significantly influenced by what others thought of me. I wanted to please everyone because I cared too much about their opinions. Coming to that realization freed me from my unrealistic expectations. Looking back, I remember I used to scold myself whenever I experienced failure and now I know that that was unhealthy. Nowadays, whenever I don’t do well in any of my studies I try my best to learn from my mistakes and use it as motivation be better. Freedom to me is confronting difficult situations optimistically and letting go of my unrealistic expectations that I have set for