"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
I am studying psychology as my major so naturally I am interested in what goes through people's mind. Fear is the scariest thing we as humans have to face. Whether it be our own fears coming to life or watching someone we love battle with their fears, fear is still in our lives. We might have never had to face our fears yet, but they are still holding us back from becoming more. This article is inspired by Jennifer VerMeulen's article about 64 people revealing their last text they sent their ex. 70 people with different stories, different experiences, different ages and a different beautiful mind shared their deepest fears. Ordered from youngest to oldest, take a few moments to truly take in all this vulnerability that people shared for us to read.
1. "Failure." -15 years old
2. "Heights and Spiders." -15 years old
3. "Being alone." -15 years old
4. "Being trapped in small spaces with no clear and visible exit." -15 years old
5. "Failure." -16 years old
6. "Failure." -17 years old
7. "Falling overboard a cruise ship and drowning to death." -17 years old
8. "Heights." -17 years old
9. "Centipedes." -17 years old
10. "The unfathomably huge expanse of ocean that we will never understand." -17 years old
11. "Dying too early." -17 years old
12. "Wasting my life." -18 years old
13. "My biggest fear is that one day my boyfriend/ future husband etc. will wake up one day and not love me anymore" -18 years old
14. "That when I die, no one will attend my funeral." -18 years old
15. "Time moving by too quickly and before I blink I'm old." -18 years old
16. "Not being good enough. I've lived trying to be the best that I can be and it's not enough. I'll never forget the day I told someone I loved them and they replied 'sometimes that's not enough.'" -18 years old
17. "Dying sooner than I'm ready for and dying alone." -18 years old
18. "Failure." -18 years old
19. "My deepest fear is not reaching my true potential. I am terrified that some day I will just give up on life and settle. I want to experience the world and enjoy life but a part of me always feels like I am not good enough and will never accomplish my goals." -18 years old
20. "To live without love, to live forever in despair." -18 years old
21. "Dying. the mere thought of leaving the earth after living a whole life upsets me. we work so hard for a fun filled, successful and loving life, and it can all be torn away in a split second death. that, it what my biggest and deepest fear is." -18 years old
22. "Abandonment." -18 years old
23. "The dark." -18 years old
24. "Not being good enough or not being able to live up to the expectations held for me." -19 years old
25. "Not finding someone to spend the rest of my life with." -19 years old
26. "Getting a divorce when I'm older." -19 years old
27. "My biggest fear is never finding my one true love. It sounds ridiculous, but I'm terrified that I'll always just be alone. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally cool with being single but not for my whole life. A lot of my family members never married and that breaks my heart. I want a family and kids in the worst way and I'm terrified that I will never find it. I had a very serious relationship 2 years ago, and I don't know if I'll ever meet someone that can tear down the walls that my previous relationship caused me to put up. I know I need to let go, and let God but that is so much easier to say that to actually do." -19 years old
28. "Being rejected/alone." -19 years old
29. "Spiders." -19 years old
30. "The the person I love will find someone else." -19 years old
31. "Being alone. For example, not having anyone to laugh with, share my life with or talk to." -19 years old
32. "Love." -19 years old
33. "Spiders." -19 years old
34. "Fear of failure." -19 years old
35. "My biggest fear is betrayal." -19 years old
36. "Losing him after he's become the best thing in my life." -19 years old
37. "My unexpected death. I am very afraid of getting murdered." -19 years old
38. "That my gender will keep being assumed." -19 years old
39. "Public speaking." -19 years old
40. "Loneliness." -20 years old
41. "Not succeeding in life." -20 years old
42. "Not finding/falling in love. Finding my soulmate." -20 years old
43. "Not being perfect." -20 years old
44. "Rejection by others." -20 years old
45. "My deepest fear is abandonment." -20 years old
46. "One day I will actually kill myself instead of just constantly thinking about it." -20 years old
47. "To leave college still not knowing what to do with the rest of my life." -20 years old
48. "Being alone." -21 years old
49. "Falling from heights and rejection." -21 years old
50. "Being confused with the '21' kid." -21 years old
51. "That I won't accomplish something due to the fear of what I must do to accomplish that goal." -22 years old
52. "I fear that there is always something on the back of my neck. I will scratch that sport for moments at a time thinking that there is something there and there never is. I fear one day I will find a giant scab or something back there pick it off and then it resulting in something deadly." -22 years old
53. "It's a cross between being stranded in outer space or stranded in the middle of the ocean." -22 years old
54. "Commitment." -22 years old
55. "The universe is huge and we'll probably die without even the slightest understanding of it. We're all unimportant in the grand scheme of things – in the vastness of it all." -22 years old
56. "Heights." -22 years old
57. "Anxiety." -23 years old
58. "Losing my job." -23 years old
59. "I fear that I will never be 100% happy in my life. People think I have everything - the perfect family, the perfect house, truly the perfect life. But it couldn't be further from the truth on the inside." -26 years old
60. "Fear of failure; not being good enough. Being replaced." -28 years old
61. "Ending up alone." -28 years old
62. "Someone I love dying." -30 years old
63. "Complacency." -30 years old
64. "Not reaching my fullest potential." -33 years old
65. "Death." -40 years old
66. "My fear is what will happen to my children if my husband and I would pass away when they are young." -41 years old
67. "I will not be able to be financially secure for the rest of my life." -48 years old
68. "Someone kidnapping my kids." -49 years old
69. "Dying before my children grow old. Missing important milestones of my children's lives, college graduation, marriage and children." -51 years old
70. "Heights and being burned alive." -64 years old
