Fear of Formal Writing

I turned in my personal essay, "Just the Two of Us", today for my english class. For the first, or perhaps second time in my entire BYU career, I was able to write a paper that met the minimum length requirement. In my mind, there are two kinds of papers. Ones I am capable of writing, and ones that I am not. Let me back up a bit, this sounds like a jumble so far.
I have a huge fear of writing formal papers. I find myself such an informal person. I don't mean this in a bad way. I am simply very comfortable around almost everyone that I meet. I don't see the point in formalities. When a paper involves a thesis and support, I automatically get so worried, so uncomfortable, and so stressed. I don't exactly know why. To be perfectly honest, in my BYU-required advanced english class last semester, I didn't even turn in our final research paper. I just don't understand how people manage to write them. When I do manage to get something written down in a frantic effort, it is never even remotely near long enough. This is a major dilemma considering I am a college student.
My personal essay, on the other hand, was not only possible for me to write, but absolutely enjoyable. I enjoyed being able to write. I love to write about things I care about, things I see, feel or have lived. My problem lies in the thesis based paper. Even when i get to choose my own topic, I'm just not a very good arguer. The paper I turned in today was wonderfully fun to write. It was difficult in the sense that I had to relive a rather sensitive event from my past, but I liked it! If only all papers were as clear, easy and enjoyable. If you want to read my essay, just ask!