Is it really that scary?
By MfrekeAbasi Enang
Afraid? You shouldn't be
IS IT REALLY THAT SCARY?
I used to live on an island during the days of my basic medical science studies. The island was called the Commonwealth of Dominica. It was a small island, with many Hills. Walking home was usually stressful, not because my house was far from the school-it was barely ten minutes away, but because the path was a hilly one. Sometimes I would look around town and spot some far away hills that looked so high, and I would see buildings there. I always wondered how people lived there, I mean, from where I was standing, these places looked like they were just 10cm below the sky! How do these people get up there? And the houses, are they really standing on level ground? It didn't look like they were.
One beautiful Saturday morning, I went on a tour with some of my friends. It was a long journey, and well, as hilly as the island was, you wouldn't expect such a long journey to be devoid of Hills. We drove and walked up a lot of Hills to get to our destination. It was then I realized that this was the same place I had been looking at from the other side and wondering how people got up there. I guess I got my answers by experience. I was up there now, and it wasn't 10cm from the sky as I thought it was. The houses were actually on level ground, and as a matter of fact, this environment was far cooler and quieter than the Centre of town where my school was located.
You may be wondering, where am I really heading with this story? Well, you see that thing that looks like a mountain that can never be brought low, it only looks that way because of where you're looking at it from. That mountain will always look huge if you stay far away from it. As you begin to advance toward this mountain, it will begin to diminish until it becomes nothing. This is the way to deal with fear, confront it. Advance towards it. Even if it's baby steps every day, just keep moving towards it. Soon you will realize that it's not as bad as it looked from afar. It will reduce to nothing.