Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

In the novel The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, many of the soldiers have metaphorical baggage that they have gathered from their treacherous time in the jungles of Vietnam. Similar to the soldiers, I have noticed that throughout the first 17 years of my life I have a lot of baggage and metaphorical things that I carry around with me everyday. My baggage often takes a toll on my life and causes me unnecessary harm. The most influential piece of baggage in my life is my strive and want for perfection in every activity that I participate in. This is closely related to the idea that I am afraid to fail. I struggle with this daily because I have trouble knowing when to stop if I have a belief that I can do an activity better than I am doing it now. I will overwork myself and often take steps backwards; until it is too late to realize the harm I have caused. …show more content…
When I make a mistake or screw up in life, I am not able to forget the situation. Instead of trying to forget the mistake or use it as a learning block to improve myself for next time, I strain my thoughts on the situation over and over until I drive myself insane. This piece of baggage is most prevalent for me when I am studying for a test or quiz. I am more preoccupied with the fact that I did not get a good grade on the last test, then learning from my errors and trying to correct them. I often make similar mistakes on tests, if not the same exact, which could easily be prevented if I was able to move on and stop obsessing with the idea that I messed up. Lacking the ability to forget and move on from a negative situation also plays a detrimental part in my life because I hold grudges and don’t forgive people easily. I will prolong my anger and annoyance at somebody because I refuse to take the time and fully process the