My deepest fear and how I overcame it
Fear is a common emotion found in everyone of us humans , despite being so common it is one of the strongest emotions . Fear in the simplest word means an emotion which usually alerts a person of a dangerous situation or sometimes of a harmful result of a certain action , example – fear of dark and fear of height , which could cause us physical damage or maybe sometimes mental damage .
We humans aren’t born naturally with fear but we develop it gradually as the time passes in our life as a result of our own and others actions , and usually things taught to us by others .
Every human in the world has many different types of fears. Some have fear of heights, dark and other environmental conditions, but there is also a type of fear which we develop directly from our society . The fear of the reaction of society to our failure. If said more appropriately this fear is the fear of being laughed at by the society if we will fail or not succeed in achieving our dreams. This is the fear which everyone must have once faced in life. The people who couldn’t overcome this fear eventually got swallowed by it.
In my life, this fear is the worst I have ever experienced. Since childhood I was always afraid to face people and answer them. I couldn’t even stand in front of them properly because I was afraid of what they would think about me if I made even a single mistake.
I was taught that “the first impression is the last impression”. This sentence left a deep impact in my heart but not in a positive way. I started getting afraid of people when I faced them. Soon this condition of mine started getting worse and I couldn’t even face my relatives. I became a sociopath.
This fear of mine started coming in the way of my academics. I couldn’t answer my teachers properly and usually prompted my friend to answer for me. This continued till I turned 16. Then the worst days of my life arrived.
We faced the first lockdown in our country. When the school reopened after a gap of six or seven months, I was afraid to talk to my friends also. I realized that I was facing a really serious condition.
Due to lockdown I never really talked to anyone like I did earlier when that (lockdown)was not there. I started to feel distant from my parents also.
I now wanted to get over this fear. I tried a lot but failed each time to remove it.
Then I learned a very big lesson that you can’t defeat your fear, you can just overcome it. As soon as I tried to get over it, the second lockdown period started. I started to feel the fear and it was getting worse.
Soon the day came when I accepted my defeat against this fear. Someone gave me a weird advice that “If you can’t overcome this fear, it’s alright. If you are afraid of people, it’s alright. If you know you can’t win then just accept your defeat. But do give it a last try with full determination.
I gave it a last try with full determination. Miraculously it worked. I did not accept defeat. I am still pushing myself.
People won’t believe me and will find it hilarious. How can accepting defeat make you win against it. Believe me, I was surprised too but soon I understood how this works .
There are only two ways to win against something. Either it could be your determination to win or it could be your fear of losing.
When I gave up on my will to fight, I lost. The last blow even though it was very weak but has to work. Since that day my confidence has been boosted. Now I can face anyone without any hesitation. Whenever I feel that society is trying to pull me down, my heart just says “You can’t get pulled down, you have to rise.”
Vivek Pokhriyal
Class XII
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