Since I was in middle school, I have faced many auditions, and anxiety ruined almost all of them. The first time I auditioned for the All-Region band, I was in seventh grade. I was quite confident in my audition material and thought that I could make All-Region, but while I was waiting to enter the audition room, I started to get nervous. The longer I waited, the worse it got; my hands were shaking and my breathing was uneven, and as I started to play my music, my fingers fumbled over the keys and I could not hold out a phrase. That same year, I had an All-Region audition for choir—I had the exact same experience. As I entered the audition room for my choir audition, I was breathing heavily and I was shaking. Every audition since then has been tough for me because my anxiety makes it hard for me to focus well enough to sing or play.…show more content… When I was studying for the ACT, I timed myself for some of the practice tests. While trying to complete the Reading portion of the test, I was so anxious about trying to finish in the allotted time that I could not focus well enough to get the correct answers; most of the questions that I had answered were wrong because I felt like I did not have enough time to finish, so I guessed on several questions. When I actually took the test, my mind was racing with thoughts of the test questions and if I was going to complete the test. I did not have much difficulty with the English portion of the test, but once I reached the Math portion, I had more trouble; my hands were shaking, I fidgeted in my seat, and I could not remember any of the formulas that I needed to answer the questions. When it took me longer than a minute to answer a problem, I panicked, and when I panicked, I had a harder time finding an