Fear is a powerful force that can take hold of any situation, and insinuate negativity throughout. Everyone, no matter how old they are or what nationality they are from, experiences fear at some point in their lives. Fear can be in the form of the minutest of things such as caterpillars, to more abstract concepts like love or death. For me, I am afraid of a lot of things. Not all of my fears are the most serious, but they all, for the most part, cause me extreme anxiety and inhibit me from carrying out some activities that I may have wanted to take part in. Five things that I am afraid of are walking my dog in the dark, leeches, ticks, relationships, and death. After reading the different options for this particular assignment, I was very apprehensive of picking this one. But I decided that if I don’t face my fears now, then it will be harder to face them later on in life.
The fear that I tried to overcome was my fear of walking my dog at night. Granted, Sharon is a very safe town, and rarely does one hear of any night time murderers or attacks, but that still did not stop me from being afraid of going out at night. I would always make my mom or dad take my dog Molly out once it got dark, because they knew how afraid of it I was. But I made a conscious choice to tackle this fear once and for all. So last Friday night, after I got back from my last festival rehearsal, and I told my mom that I was taking Molly out, she was shocked. She told me to not worry and that nothing would happen. I agreed with her, put Molly on her leash, and headed out the door.
Once I shut the front door, and walked out of the small light casting down from my front porch, fear set in. Almost automatically all of my worst fears regarding the dark (murderer, rapist, rabid animals, etc) crept through my mind, causing me to stop in my tracks. I was about to turn around, when I felt a tug on the leash in my hand. Looking back, I saw Molly wagging her tail at rapid speed, with a big smile on her face. I knew that she needed to go to the bath room, and that I needed to conquer my fear, so I took one big, deep breath, closed my eyes, and continued on the walk.
I advanced down the street, focusing only on my dog right in front of me, so that my eyes wouldn’t wander, and I wouldn’t be scared of the typical woodland creatures that live in my neighborhood. This worked, and before I knew it I had reached the end of my street. I was ecstatic! I couldn’t believe that I made it all the way down my street at nighttime, without turning back or being afraid. This extra boost of confidence made the walk back to my house so much easier, for I wasn’t afraid anymore.
I am so glad that I conquered my fear of walking outside at night. Now I can take that experience, something that used to bring my anxiety and nerves, and turn it into a happy one. I now know that for me, one way to conquer a fear such as walking outside at night, is by distracting myself and focusing in on one thing to take my mind off of what it is exactly that I am doing, kind of like Flow. Instead of doing the typical Flow examples of counting tiles or finger tap combinations, I honed in on my dog and her walking patterns, and before I knew it I was already half way done with the walk. Now I am able to walk outside at night, conquering my fear, and actually enjoy myself. On the walks I can clear my mind, as I am surrounded by the crisp, fresh air, and the nature around me. I can honestly say that I even look forward to those nightly walks. By conquering that fear, I am more confident that someday I can conquer my other fears as successfully as I did this one.
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