Confronting My Fears

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT:

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

I think old Eleanor might be onto something with that quote.  I know that I've been petrified of doing so many things in my life, and had I not taken the risk to do some of those things, my life would be filled with regret and disappointment.  But it's not, because I have faced, and conquered so many of my fears throughout life.

Some of the biggest fears I've confronted have dealt with moving.  

To start off, I left my family to go to college at the age of 18.  You want to talk about nerve-racking; I had never ever lived away from home, and there I was, moving to a city four hours from my family.  Yikes!  What did I know about living alone?  Nothing.  I couldn't cook, I couldn't clean, and I could barely make my own bed.  Of course I'm exaggerating a little, but it was terrifying to leave a place I had known ALL of my life.  

But I didn't stop there.  Once I conquered that fear, I began to gain more confidence, and I moved even farther away.  At the end of my final year at the university, I left the state of Iowa to teach in California.  All the friends I had made...good-bye.  The girl I was dating...adios.  I knew that I wanted a bigger challenge so I packed up and moved.  And it turned out to be perfect.  I taught at a middle school where I quickly became a leader, met students I'll stay in touch with forever, and designed programs that still help the school today.

But I knew I couldn't stay there either, because I had always wanted to teach internationally. So I took on another fear.  I left the U.S. to come all the way here to Guatemala, a country with so much beauty, but definitely with its fair share of negative publicity.  This didn't stop me.  I wasn't going to let the fear of something terrible happening, prevent me from doing something I wanted to do.  And here I am, a year and a half later, loving it.  The school I teach at is without a doubt the best school I've worked at yet, and I couldn't have asked for a better experience.  

So facing my fears has easily changed my life in so many positive ways.  Every one of those situations terrified me at first.  Not knowing anyone, leaving my comfort zone, risking everything just to move to a different city, state, or country.  But, in the long run, each situation also gave me courage, strength, and confidence to continue facing my fears.  

This is why it's so important to start young.  The kids I see pushing themselves to attempt new things, try out for sports, run for student government, raise their hands in class, and even participate in crazy activities like CAG's Got Talent demonstrate the power of facing our fears.  Those that do, those that have the courage and the confidence to push themselves to experience every aspect of life, continue to grow and live each moment fully.  

DON MIGUEL RUIZ:

"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive -- the risk to be alive and express what we really are."