Fear is one of the most basic human emotion. The first reaction we have as children is fear, the womb is our safety blanket and we are ripped from it and the first thing we feel is the fear of the unknown. As children we are prone to fears imagined and real fears that are more terrifying than anything our minds can conjure. We go into our adult lives afraid of the uncertainties that life will put before us, a fear that I have found is often masqueraded with laughs and lightheartedness. It is fear nonetheless, and fear often follows us into our twilight years as well. The thought of death and becoming a useless shell of one’s former self is a common theme amongst the elderly from where I have been listening for all eighteen years of my life.

Fear will always be essential to human survival, a natural warning to stay away from danger that could possibly end our already short lives. But fear can be detrimental to an individual’s success. Fear can hold a person back from truly achieving their maximum potential. If you let fear knock you down, it will kick and stomp you until nothing is left. You will have lost everything that makes you the unique and blessed individual you are, and then you will truly be lost. People often get afraid when things do not go their way, and it leaves them in a rut. They dread waking up every morning and feel at their lowest when everything has gone left. Nobody ever realizes that literally nothing in life goes according to plan. There are simply too many factors that will change and shift the outcome of the particular situation. You just have to go with the flow of things sometimes. Fear can only take you so far. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut, and if things do no go your way then that is okay. Life will go on and you will feel great that you did something that terrified you. Whether that’s asking someone out, or skydiving. Sometimes you just have to let the fear go.