What is Fear?

To me fear is something that hinders the joys of life. Not being able to do something out of fear, sucks. It just weighs you down. You can't experience life to the fullest with fears getting in the way. Now there are different types of fears.

I experienced two types. The irrational fear. Growing up being the only girl in a house full of boys. I've never been afraid of bugs. I use to catch them and insects: Beetles, centipedes, caterpillars, you name it. Than when I was twelve, the moment I saw a moth. Something that had the consistency of cotton, I was quaking in my boots. Till this day I live with this fear that I can't grasp my mind around it. I don't know where it came from, but it's annoying. If there is a moth in a room, I can't go into that room. I know it physically can't hurt me but for some reason my mind shuts down.

The other one is through experience. I have a fear of water. That came from when I was a child. I went swimming with some older cousins and they thought it would be fun if they held me under the water. That was the last time I ever went swimming. I used to love swimming and I would swim everyday. When school was over, I was in the pool. Now thanks to that experience, I don't go near the water out of fear. I don't go fishing, I don't go boating, I don't hang out with my friends at the pool. That hurts me because I hear what I missed out on. This fear gets in the way of things I could be experiencing. I've always wanted to go jet skiing but can't out of fear, same thing with scuba diving.

Well maybe it’s the fear of being trapped under water than anything else. This doesn't bother me now that I have grown accustom to it, but it's sad to grow accustom to fear. It’s not supposed to be a part of our daily lives. We’re supposed to go out and enjoy things without that nagging feeling in the back of our minds. Well that's my two cents.