Philophobia

1. Ideophobia

Ideophobia - Fear of Ideas

*Norah Cohen*

  All my life, I have had a little story in the back of my mind. It may stay there for 6 months, but some may only stay for about 5 minutes. I had always wanted to be an author, or a journalist, but I get scared of what would happen if I wrote these down and published them.

  I let the story take control, all the ideas in my head over flow and I have to write them. Sometimes I get scared of where the story could take me. What if my ideas were absolutely ridiculous and I would regret them in the future? Some would even say I had "ideophobia".

  How do I know the existence of that word?: I just do. I have this strange addiction, which is to go into a dictionary and look up all the possible phobias. I don't know why, but I like to see how the word is formed. Such as the word... Friggatriskaidecaphobia which means: Fear of Friday 13th.

  I like to split it up a bit: Frigga-Tris-Kai-Deca-Phobia. "Frigga" means "Friday", I am not sure how, but it's a good estimate. "Tris" means "three", if you think about triangles, which have three sides or a tricycle which has three wheels. "Kai" means "and", leaving "Deca" which means "ten". The name of a ten sided shape is called a decagon, which is how I remember it. Finally, "Phobia" which obviously means: "fear". So a way of translating it is: "Friday-Three-And-Ten-Fear".

  Anyway, enough about the forming of rather long words, maybe I should explain why I have decided to start this diary. As I said earlier, I long to be a writer but I told my English teacher, Mr Kingston, that I never wrote things down. I just don't have time to put down my ideas on paper, yet I still wanted to write about... something.

  So he suggested a diary because it is quicker to write about what has already happened rather than make up the plot, then write what happened. He also told me that I could make my day sound more interesting through my writing.

  Imagine if I wrote about visiting the canteen at school one day. Depending on how I write it could effect the whole mood.

  "It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining, the birds were singing and my tummy was growling at me, begging for food. Taking bold strides, I headed towards the canteen as I took in the warming scent of sausages and chips."

  "The sun had been shut out one midday. My stomach felt as if it punched itself, but I was not sure if it was because it was hungry, or because it knew was about to await it. Steadily, I trod to the canteen, taking in the stench of sausage and chips, mixed with all the other old food from the past week."

  See the difference? One was happy, the other was rather unenthusiastic, this is what I hope to achieve in this diary.

  Let me tell you a bit about myself, I have short wavy hair, which is very dark, some have even said it is black. I have green eyes which are covered by some red glasses. They are kept on the tip of my nose because I read quite a lot, I have truly fallen for romance novels. Something about them seems so addictive, definately more than looking up the different types of phobias.

  The reason romance novels are my obsession is because I have never experienced some romance of my own. I supposed I am only 14, but they say that the average time people get their first kiss is when they are 14, I have not even been asked out on a date yet. But at the same time, I don't know what I would do if I was asked out... It depends on the person, if I am interested in anyone.

  But I don't really fancy anyone at the moment, well, there is one boy named Sean who is quite nice. I sit next to him in my English class. In fact, I am sitting next to him right now. Mr Kingston is talking about how to form essays from roughly the billionth time, which is dreadfully boring, so my cure is the diary right here.