October 2019

Forget those fears
By: Faith Crosby

Fear of heights, planes, confined spaces, clowns, dogs, and hospitals: all things that I’ve never seemed to be afraid of. My fear is more abstract: uncertainty. Before I came to college, I feared never finding a passion to pursue. Once I got here, I found a passion for education and teaching. But, I still second guess my discovery every now and then. What if this isn’t really what I love? What if I spend four years preparing for this career and ultimately find out that it did not give me the fulfillment I so desperately desired? What if I never stop being uncertain that I made the right choice? I’m spending money on this college education that I can’t get back, and my greatest fear is that I’m wasting it on the wrong passion.

I want to be a secondary education Teacher, focusing on English and minoring in Psychology. I want to become a teacher because of the long lasting impact that I can impart on impressionable teenagers. I can name so many teachers in my life who have helped shape me to be the hardworking woman I am, and I would like to do the same in others’ lives. But, there are always those people who decide to share their doubts with me: “You know you won’t have a lot of money?” “Working with kids for the rest of your life is going to be stressful.” Even, “you’re going to have to get married if you want any financial stability.” No matter how confident I feel about the path that I want to pursue, those doubts that others audaciously share with me always seem to find their mark. “What if they’re right? What if this isn’t what I should be going into?” I think to myself. Eventually, my defiant spirit returns to me, and I remind myself that I don’t need all of the money in the world, and I definitely don’t need a man to provide stability. The joy of impacting lives will always outweigh any uncertainty.

I think the greatest way to get over a fear is through continuous confrontation. I come across scepticism often when I tell people my career aspiration, and I think reassuring myself after those encounters pushes me further and further from uncertainty. For more tangible fears, most people say the same thing. If you keep riding higher roller coasters, flying further distances, spending more time in small places, going to more circuses, petting more dogs, and spending more time in a hospital as a volunteer and not a patient, you can overcome any fear you have.