Journal #25 - Fear

Mark Twain once said, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." I agree that it is never wrong to have fear. Fear can be used as inspiration and drive behind any action in life. Having fear doesn't make one weak or laughable. The great thing about fears is that they are different for all people. For example, I have a rather large fear of frogs. I get mocked and laughed at for this fear, but what can I do? I received this fear similar to how others get their own fears. What had happened was.. I went to a small fair in Pleasant Plains about seven years ago. It was the Fourth of July, and the community was have games and food out to occupy visitors before the fireworks. I was dressed up in a casual dress. Let me just point out that wearing a skirt was very odd for me circa 2005, which was when this event was taking place, because I was a complete tomboy. So I had played almost every game at this small fair and there was only one left: the frog race. Multiple players could line up, pick their frogs, and then race them down a track. I picked the biggest frog I could find in the bucket. Looking back, I see that I went about picking my frog considering it was a race. I should have picked the lightest and youngest looking, duh. So I pick my frog and get set up in my lane. The race began, and we were able to tap our frogs on the back to get them to jump faster. When I went to tap mine, it somehow got turned around and jumped right into my skirt. I squealed and jumped up. Although I was probably overreacting, I started hyperventilating. It was all just a very bad experience. It came back to me in eighth grade when we had to dissect frogs. Their textured skin and long tongues make me shaky and cause me to gag. I had to keep myself from puking everyday of the week long experiment. Frogs are one of my few fears. I try to overcome others by fighting myself against them. At one point I had a little fear of heights, but I was able o overcome it. Since then, I have been para sailing, jumped off the highest of diving boards, and been on three zip lines. I feel like fears are there to be destroyed. Accomplishing one always gives me a great feeling.