The GEL program has long been one that helps students take stock of themselves and find their way through social and moral landscapes.

Instructors in this program often assign This I Believe essays, sometimes as entry points into these landscapes and sometimes as souvenirs. Out of many, seven This I Believe essays stood out to a reading committee made up wrte students, faculty, and staff. The essay genre started in the s on a radio show with Edward R. Murrow and was continued by NPR in Many have enjoyed writing and reading these essays ever since.

Throughout my life, I have always thought of myself as a failure. I was a failure for not wgite smart enough, friendly enough, or pretty enough.

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Always, I criticized myself for not putting in enough effort in order to work up to my full potential. The burdens that I carried weighed me down like how an anchor holds down a boat. Only, it was attached to my mind, instead of my ankle or a ship. The weight of the self-hatred and low self-esteem that I had made me feel like I was drowning.

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Day after day, I would look at myself in the mirror, tearing myself down. I would tell myself every night that I was never enough. I believed that I was a weak and worthless individual, a waste of time.

This kind of hateful thinking made it a struggle to stay afloat. Before I knew it, I was weighed down by anxiety and an eating disorder.

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Each morning I would wake up to only to prepare to endeavor the difficulties of my illnesses. At one point, I was fully consumed by the storm of my dark thoughts.

I had trouble getting through each day.]