Up until I was 14 years old, I was terrified of most things. This included heights, most amusement park rides and definitely being upside down. It was so bad that when my family would take trips to theme parks, one of my parents would have to begrudgingly wait with me at the bottom so that I could stay as far away from the rides as possible. I recall my dad bribing me with a crisp $20 bill to get me to go on Space Mountain at Disney with the whole family.
As I sat down on the rollercoaster with tears in my eyes, I remember thinking that it was too late to get off, so might as well suck it up. The rollercoaster turned out to be "not so bad" and I might have actually enjoyed it.
From then on, I decided to try all the rides I had always missed out on, even though I would stand in line for them trying not to cry. I didn't necessarily want to go on the rides, I just wanted to stop being scared of them. I knew nobody had ever been injured on them before, so what was there to lose.
My fear of heights slowly started to move to the back of my mind as the years went on and the trips to the amusement parks consisted of more rides and less watching my friends have all the fun.
Flash forward 4 years and there I am, flying around the coast of California on a plane with no seats. The door is wide open, my feet are hanging out over the ocean, and I have an unfamiliar man strapped to me with a backpack.
He pointed out some cool things that we were flying over, while also reminding me about important skydiving etiquette. I looked over at my older brother and thought to myself, "It's too late to back out now." My brother and his instructor plummeted to the ground and it was my turn. I thought I would be terrified at this moment, but I was so excited to make it to the ground and tell everyone about this experience.
We slid off the edge of the seat and started flipping around in the air. My initial reaction was to scream, but after a second I looked around and took it all in. I couldn't help but think about who I was just a few years prior. I would have never seen myself ever jumping out of a plane voluntarily.
I'm not saying that everyone should schedule a day to go skydiving, although I do highly recommend, but I firmly believe the only way to get rid of a fear is facing it head on. Whether it be public speaking, spiders or scary rides, do it. Go ace the speech in front of your class, take care of the spider in your room without screaming for help and get in line for the new rollercoaster.
Put yourself in the situation where you find that it's easier to do the unwanted task than to turn around, and follow through. "Fake it 'til you make it," accomplish your task, and your life will be so much happier.
