Fear
Fear is something all of us have experienced. Most of us find other peoples' fears peculiar or even funny, not realizing that our own fears are just as bad. People can be afraid of anything, from the dark, bugs, getting into trouble, from bullies, or even from death. Some people get so obsessive about their fears that they become a phobic. The main difference between normal fear and phobia is that phobia is more of a mental disorder, characterized by paranoia, anxiety, tension, sweating, inability to breathe, and other severe symptoms like that. Normal fear is just a slight tingling in the gut, wishing you weren't experiencing what you fear. I have quite a few fears, none of them being severe enough to call a phobia.

For one thing, I have always been afraid of lizards. Their dull yellowish-grey color, their transparent limbs, their ever darting black beady eyes, all enough to send shivers up my spine. I don't mind the colorful garden lizards though, they at least seem a bit cheerful, very unlike the common house lizards one can find in almost any corner of a room. Probably the main reason I detest house lizards so much is because of an incident which happened when I was just a little five year old kid. I had been watching television sitting on the armchair hand-rest when suddenly I felt something on my shoulders. I looked down to see black beady eyes staring up at me and a forked tongue sticking out of a tiny yellowish mouth. I screamed and the next minute fell off the armchair hand-rest only to hit my head on the hard marble floor and feel sticky paws running across my forehead, leaving me unconscious. I remember waking up on my bed to see my worried parents sitting by my side waiting for me to wake up. One may call it silly, but till today I blame that lizard for causing me so much trouble. That fall's aftereffects can still be felt today, as often I get terrible headaches in the part of my head where I hit the ground. Since that summer day I have hated lizards to the core, no matter how far away the gruesome critter is.

Another fear I have is that of speaking on stage. It's easy for me to address a crowd from any place other than a raised platform. Many will say that the stage is something which should make you feel confidant, but that isn't the case with me. The stage gives me a sense of insecurity, makes me feel much more conscious about what I do and say, thus not allowing me to just be myself. On a raised platform I feel as if everyone is sneering and mocking me, even though I know they aren't. It's so much easier addressing a crowd when half of them cannot really see you clearly, though you know they are very much watching every move. Speaking in public is something which should come naturally, but my fear of stages really doesn't allow that. On stage I always find myself stammering too much, always making a fool of myself in the process. No one would want a crowd of people to think they are stupid.

My greatest fear yet is the fear of being forgotten. What is the use of living when once you die people will forget you anyways? I meet a lot of people everyday and do my best to make a difference in their life. I want them to be able to look back fifty years in time and remember how I helped them or how I changed their life, or at least remember they once knew me. I don't want to be the forgotten one as the whole thought is quite frightening. It's like eating a chicken sandwich and being unable to remember the taste, and the loss is not that of the eater, but of the chicken sandwich. The eater can always eat another chicken sandwich, but that particular chicken sandwich can never be tasted again. Thinking about it will make you realize how scary the whole prospect really is.

Another great fear I have is having no purpose in life. I want to make a place for myself in this world, not fade away leaving behind nothing. As Kurt Cobain said in his suicide note, "It's better to burn out than fade away", I feel the same way. Just think, would you want to just be born, live a monotonous, meaningless life, and then die? I definitely wouldn't, I want a purpose, and I'm going to search for that purpose. I'm content with the way I'm living at the moment; my purpose at the moment is to bring a smile on everyone's face. In the future that purpose will change and hopefully I'll have a better, large scaled purpose. I really wouldn't want to lie in my death bed wishing I had had a purpose or made a difference in the world. I know that this one fear is something I must overcome with my hard work, and I definitely will. I will make a purpose for my life, I will make the world a better place, and I won't die pondering over why I was born and what difference I made.

Fear comes in all forms, some can easily be overcome, while others can last with you for a whole lifetime. The best way to overcome your fears is to face them, in fact this is the only way to overcome your fears. People develop fears for various reasons, and sometimes no reason at all, but whatever it is, fears should be overcome. One should fear nothing but fear itself.

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