The Year of the Zombie :: Personal Narrative Essay Example

The Year of the Zombie   Now a high-school senior, I still remember my freshman year with a frisson it was the year my friends and I joked about as the Year of the Zombie. It wasnt that I had contracted a rare medical disorder that transformed me into one of the walking dead.   I had done what many diligent students do sacrifice most of my sleep time for the sake of academic success.         Dont get me wrong my parents never mandated that I deplete all the honors classes I could gain admission to. No one told me to take three honors classes. No one, that is, except the little voice in my head that positive(p) me scholarly success was based upon the number of Hs on my high-school transcript. The counselors cautioned me not to do it, students who had fallen into the trap before warned me against it and my parents just left it up to me. Through it all, I just smiled and reassured them, Dont worry I can handle it. The trouble was, I didnt have the slightest idea what lay ahead.         I soon found myself involved in work. For a person whose friends teased her about being a neat freak, I grew increasingly messy. My room and desk looked like my backpack had exploded. There was no time to talk to friends on the phone, not notwithstanding on the weekends. Going to bed at midnight was a luxury, 1 a.m. was normal, 3 a.m. meant time to panic and 4 a.m. meant it was time to go to sleep defeated. Most days, I would shuffle clumsily from class to class with sleep-clouded eyes and nod off during classroom lectures. There was even a month in winter when I was so self-conscious of my raccoon eyes that I wore sunglasses to school.         My parents applauded my academic success, but hardly knew the damage I paid for it. I vividly remember one night when my mother couldnt fall asleep. She kept going to bed and getting up again. all(prenominal) -, time I heard her get up, Id turn off my l ight so she wouldnt catch me still awake. By 5 oclock that morning, I was so sleepy-eyed that I didnt hear her footsteps as she shuffled down the hallway. When she saw the light under my door, she came in and demanded to know why I wasnt sleeping.