The screams from Isabela De La Garza echoed from outside the school. Running in despair through the rain from the disgusting creature her friends held. Her shoes were wet from the water, but she was too frightened to even care. Her friends slowly were gaining ground on her, eventually catching up. Forced to face her fear she looked at the slimy worm dead in the eyes. Traumatized, she swore to never step foot outside in the rain again.
An important part of life is overcoming your fears. People try to avoid their fears, what they don’t realize is that avoiding their fears prevents them from overcoming that fear and realizing it’s not as dangerous or extreme as they thought. Fears can have great impacts on people. Some result in anxiety and others can be helpful in a way. The common response is to avoid their fear and let anxiety win over the situation.
Being able to address fears can allow people to learn and gain valuable lessons from their fears rather than staying afraid and living with the fear all their lives.
People can inherit their fears from past experiences and witnessing incidents that caused trauma or fear. Instructor Ryan Burk had been faced with a father who created his fear of being a bad father. Seeing how his father treated others he gained the conscious fear of not wanting to be like him. “It makes me more conscious of how I interact and treat my children, whether it’s praise or discipline.” Burk’s concern about how he treats his children impacts his life greatly. Gaining this fear from his past he holds himself accountable for how he treats others, especially the ones closest to him. Trying to fix his father’s mistakes by being a better father himself. Burk uses his fear as a way to improve himself and become someone he wants to be.
People sometimes act or feel a certain way because of how they were treated in the past or their interactions with others, someone who has experienced failing a task and was judged because of that or used to be bullied in some way has a higher chance of having a fear of public speaking or being judged by others. Michael Rodriguez, a student at West Ottawa High School, experienced the difficulty of having to speak in front of people while feeling judged. “It’s one of my fears that people just look at me talking and look bored.” Feeling as if no one was interested in what he was saying and ignoring his words. It’s common among many people to be anxious to speak in front of people.
Rodriguez admitted how awkward and anxiety-filling it can be for him to speak in front of certain people. Suffering from public speaking is common but can be a problem once it impacts someone’s life and their everyday activities.
People don’t realize how much of an effect the fear of public speaking can have on someone, whether it is slight or a phobia.
Being close to loved ones can bring anxiety to someone when people think about their close one’s death. Many worry about when their family or friends are going to leave them. Many people such as Instructor Nathan Stempky experience the worry that the people close to him will die.
“I would probably start by keeping busy and then I would probably shut down,” Stempky explains how he would react and cope with this fear if it were to happen. It can impact someone’s life by creating the fear and anxiety of not wanting to lose someone they love or even themselves. Mr Stempky said, “ It will probably take about 3 years for me to function properly again,” Stempky explains and talks about how his past has affected him once before and the tragedies that he had already faced.
This fear doesn’t only involve being afraid of losing close ones it can also be someone dying or the process of dying. Many times people fear the way that they will die and are paranoid. No one knows when or how their death will happen but the uncertainty of what will happen adds to the fear and anxiety. The fear of death can also create other fears such as fear of drowning, suffocating, heights, etc. It can impact people’s lives because they have to live with the constant fear of losing their loved one becoming a reality.
There are many common fears out there. One of those many fears is spiders. Many people fear spiders, such as Romen Ferguson and Mairah Perales. Being afraid of spiders is common among many people but for some, it can be more extreme.3.5 – 6.1 percent of the population have arachnophobia (fear of spiders). “I feel scared whenever my mom makes me kill the spiders. Some of them have eggs and when killed the baby spiders can go everywhere.” Romen Ferguson explains why he is afraid of spiders. He encounters his fear many times but for him, it never gets easier. Being forced to kill the spiders in his house only builds the fear he holds.
The fear of spiders is one of the top 10 most common fears according to research. “I’m scared of spiders, every time I see a spider I run away.” Mariah Perales confessed how spiders affect her everyday life even if it’s just slightly. Even just seeing a spider can cause a fear response for Perales and many others. It can be a struggle to live with the fear of spiders because of how common they are seen throughout someone’s day.
Many people with high expectations struggle with the pressure of underperforming or messing up. For example, many athletes deal with a fear of messing up such as Abel Anaya, a player for West Ottawa’s varsity football team.
“My biggest fear is messing up in a Friday night football game.” Being a sophomore on varsity puts a lot of pressure on Anaya. Being the person that messes up in a game can affect someone’s confidence in their skills. It can also put pressure on the team causing the team to also lack confidence.
The disappointment from teammates and coaches makes athletes feel as if there is no room for error. Being put under pressure and failing to do a task will affect the athlete’s confidence and cause them to be self-conscious of how they perform creating pressure within an athlete. Facing your fears is hard, but not overcoming them is even worse. Face your fears!
