Scaredy Student

13 year old Jacob Stevenson had a pretty difficult life considering he had many fears in life. Living this style of life, being scared of many things made it so Jacob did not have many friends at school because he was home schooled so he could not make friends that way or other places seeing he did not play any sports or any other activities made it difficult to make friends. He was born in a small town south of Detroit and is still living there in a small house; Jacob is home schooled by his parents due to his fears that he will not leave the house. Considering one of Jacob’s fears was that he won’t leave his own home his favorite hobby is to just play video games, basically he does nothing else at all, eat, sleep and play video games.
Jacob’s main fear in life was he was petrified of germs. He would not share anything with anyone, he would not leave his house and also nobody was aloud in his room, he has one sister, a mom and a dad and they have never gone into his room or else Jacob would freak out. After everything he did he would wash his face and his hands such as eat, touch anything that wasn’t his and touch anyone else. He wouldn’t even kiss or hug his mom or dad, wouldn’t shake hands or anything like that.
This fear had a lot of disadvantages and few advantages. Some advantages are that if he really likes video games and that is his passion he can do that all he wanted. Another advantage is that if he never leaves his house there is a way better chance that nothing bad or very dangerous will ever happen to him such as getting hit by a car; beat up by a gang or even getting attacked by a dangerous animal such as a bear, cougar or a coyote. Also if you will not leave your house that means you will need to be home schooled and that’s only 3 hours a day and normal school is 6 hours plus you can have your parents as your teachers which would be better than a normal teacher. Some disadvantages are that you will not make many friends considering you will not leave your house. Another is that you cannot experience all the fun and adventurous things there are to do in life and your life will eventually get very bored of your life after a while. You cannot go anywhere such as the store, friends, restaurant and especially you cannot go places for vacation if you wanted vacation or you had to move.
Jacob’s daily routine is this:8:00: Wake up
8:15: Brush teeth
8:30: Eat breakfast
8:45: Wash hands
8:50: Wash Face
9:00: Play Video Games
11:55: Wash Hands and face
12:00: Eat lunch
12:15 : Wash hands and face
12:30 : Play video games
7:00: Wash hands and face
7:15: Eat Dinner
7:30: Wash hands and face
8:00: Go to bed

That is Jacob’s routine everyday and it is the exact same every day which is pretty boring. Maybe the odd time it might change a bit by him sleeping in or not being hungry so he would not eat and even sometimes he would get too carried away playing his video games but other than that it would be the same every day. This lifestyle would negatively affect his life because he cannot do much other than sit at home and play video games. Jacob wouldn’t even go into his enormous backyard; it had trampoline, pool, hot tub and a swing set and still he wouldn’t go in his backyard. One day Jacob’s parents had a talk together about Jacob’s life and agreed to try to get Jacob to for once just go outside and try to overcome his fear. At the dinner table Jacob’s parents started a conversation about him going outside. Jacob’s mom said:
“Jacob, do you want to try and go outside to overcome your fear?
“No, Never!” yelled Jacob.
“Why not? Let’s just go look outside” mom said calmly.
“Ok, fine” said Jacob
We all got up and walked to the back door leading to the gigantic back yard. Jacob took a look outside with a nervous face and bit his lip. He was so scared. Mom said:
“Come on”
“Ok, I’m ready” said Jacob.
Jacob opened the sliding door and took a step outside, the cold breeze and the noise of the same old dog barking every night that I can hear from my bedroom window which got annoying after a couple days. After standing there in shock for about a minute I finally realized it wasn’t so bad. I started slowly walking further in my back yard and eventually started running in freedom. This was my first time going outside since I was about 1 when I was born and had to go home. My life had changed; I liked the outdoors and wasn’t so scared after all. My parents were crying in joy and were the happiest people alive next to me considering this is the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole life.
The next year I went to school in a real school, I joined sports teams and most of all I went outside A LOT more! Thanks to my parents who helped me thru this fear I am a normal boy now. Also I share stuff and now I allow people to go into my room. I’ve made some friends now and we always play outside together. This is my new and improved daily routine:
8:00: Wake up
8:30: Brush teeth
9:00: Eat breakfast
9:30: Wash hands
10:00: Go outside
11:00: Play video games.
12:00: Eat lunch
12:30: Go outside
3:00: Play video games
5:00: Eat dinner
6:00: Go outside
8:00: Go to bed
As you can see my life has changed a lot after I had overcome my fear and also my life has improved great fully because now I can experience more things in the outside world, I’ve made a lot of friends and I have met new people. Now I am a normal boy and my life is better than ever!