Big, dominating, frightening, and uncontrollable. What is it? Dinosaurs. One of my biggest childhood fears. I’ll always remember, a few weeks into school, my teacher excitedly announcing my very first Kindergarten field trip. I anxiously waited to hear, and then the words came out of her mouth. “We’re going to the….(long pause)…Dinosaur Museum.” My mouth dropped, my heart flickered, I was going to face my biggest fear.
So, do I sound irrational yet? I know you are thinking, is she really writing about dinosaurs. And then immediately right after, is she REALLY afraid of dinosaurs? The thought for the blog hit me when recently talking about my lifetime irrational fears. Dinosaurs, the sea, the sky, natural disasters, and aliens. It really struck me as interesting to think about why some people are afraid of certain things. There are girls who cringe at the sight of a bug, guys who become little girls at the sight of the spider, and even once on an episode of Maury…a girl afraid of bread.
Why am I afraid of all those things? Looking at all my fears at face value, it looks like there is no relationship between the “scariness” of each. But thinking about it a little harder, they each actually tell a lot about me. They each are something that I wouldn’t be able to control or fully understand if I faced them, and something that is my biggest fear of all is…the fear of the unknown. So dig deep for once, and face and understand your irrational fears. Find out the fears of the people are you, and you’d be surprised by how much more you’ll understand yourself and the people that surround you.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UVA chapter.