Fear

As I travel down a path of limitless potential and unbridled curiosity, a road that I've longed to travel for years, I still find myself held back by a fear far too familiar. On a quest to conquer death and loss, to make something beautiful out of what is thought to be not, I am greatly saddened by this thought. I watch the waves crash against the ferry as it takes me one step closer towards closure, to a peace that i have yet to feel, but as I stare, fear encompasses my thoughts like an old friend I wished not to have seen. My heart beat quickens and my feet grow restless, my hands begin to shake, and a sudden faintness overcomes me. Will this feeling ever subside? Will I be able to look at the water one day and feel a blissful calm, or will it always get the better of me? If I jump, if I throw caution to the wind and dive into the waters unknown, will I emerge devoid of the fear that once haunted me so, or will I panic, splashing and thrashing until I sink back into the depths that I have always known? To be fearful is human nature, it makes us unique and the same all at once. It breeds caution, it is a necessary component to our survival, but for those who know it well, for those who let it consume them and guide their every minute, their every thought, their lives become only that, survival. This world beholds an endless amount of unseen beauty, so much of which is right before our eyes. Fear has made me complacent. It has created a person in anguish over the knowledge of a free life, a life that seems to be constantly one step ahead, mocking me as it passes by. I'm ready to break free from these chains, to look fear in the eyes, to confront it with a fiery passion that it has yet to see from the prisoner that it has held captive for all this time. So i reach out, I take one step forward and jump, head first into that which strikes fear in my heart. I let the water wash over me, cold as ice, it chills every bone in my body. Frozen by terror I close my eyes, ready to sink into the darkness below, but with a strength unknown, I pull my head back to the surface. I gasp for air, every nerve in my body on fire, pleading to let it collapse back into the cold, but I refuse. I choose to bask in the glory of this wondrous life, rather than cower in the fear of the unknown. I swim to the shore, renewed with the strength and determination of a man held back by nothing. Fear is nothing. Fear is a figment of our imagination. Live in the absence of fear, dismiss it like it was never there, and follow your dreams. If you can't follow your dreams, what's the point?