The Diary of a Teenager=)

                                                      ‘Fear is temporary. Regret is permanent’. 

This is what I read on a huge poster at the world’s highest Bungee Jumping Point  in South Africa. 

Needless to say, I was terrified at that moment and didn’t pay too much attention to the poster. The thought of being suspended upside down by a string, after jumping off a bridge 660 feet above a valley, didn’t appeal to me at all. 

A few days later, when I wasn’t in a frightened state of mind, I remembered that quote on that poster. It is one of the most truthful things, isn’t it? Fear DOESN’T last. It is momentary. Regret DOES last. What is a moment of fear as compared to a lifetime of regret? Nothing at all! Why then, is it so difficult for us to overcome our fears?

Everyday, we battle with our fears. Most of the time, we lose. Everybody has had those internal debates with themselves, be it about learning swimming, confessing their feeling to someone, wanting to take up a subject that isn’t mainstream, or as in my case, wondering whether Bungee Jumping is for the sane. It is in human nature to be scared of getting hurt, physically or emotionally. This is what makes us give in to our fears. This is what doesn’t allow us to see that swimming doesn’t equal to drowning, that a person’s rejection won’t kill us, that it is okay to explore undiscovered paths and also that Bungee Jumping from a commercial spot made for it is completely safe! Our fear stops us from thinking rationally and giving things a shot.

According to me, fear is like that nagging, evil lady one sees in each and every Hindi daily soap. She is always waiting at the horizon, ready to pounce on anyone having a weak moment and make them re-think all their decisions. She manipulates people, attacks their weakest points and makes them bend to her will. That is exactly what fear does to us. It manipulates us and takes away our ability to think. However, the daily soaps, with their very clichéd storylines always show that in the end (even if that comes after a 1000 episodes of a snail-paced story), the evil lady is defeated. She fails in her plans. People come to their senses. Even though most of us hate Hindi soaps and will always do so, this is something we should remember. Just like that lady, we can defeat our fears. If we want to, we can prevent ourselves from getting manipulated. We can tell that voice at the back of our heads to shut up. If it doesn’t stop talking, we must simply stop

listening!

If people hadn’t learnt to ignore their fears, the Americas wouldn’t have been discovered and Mount Everest would have remained unconquered. And Bungee Jumping? Well, that would have been unheard of!

That day in South Africa, I finally did jump off that 660 feet high bridge. Even though the jump in itself was quite a thrill, I was thrilled more because I had conquered my fear. I was thrilled because I hadn’t let that momentary fear stop me from doing something I probably wouldn’t get to do ever again. I had made that nagging voice at the back of my head shut up.                             The best part? It wasn’t all that tough to do. All of us can do it. So go ahead, do something that scares you. Once you do, you’ll be surprised at how it wasn’t so scary after all. Today, I decided to share something that I wrote with the rest of te world, even though it scares the living daylights out of me. After all, all of us who watch T.V(basically, everyone then), know that ‘Dar ke aage jeet hai’ (Fear is always followed by success;))