Day 2: Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. – Franklin D. Roosevelt 

We’re all scared of something. Whether it’s snakes or spiders or something a bit more extreme like holes or belly buttons, we all harbour a slight or deep fear for something/someone. Mine change often, and I jubilate when I overcome them. I hope I get to overcome these as well. 

Escalators: Anyone who knows me well or has ever been to the mall with me knows how scared I am of escalators. Hand to God, I’d rather take the stairs to the top of the building than use escalators. Who the fluff invented moving stairs, seriously? It strikes me as something conjured by witches or aliens and is only fit for nightmares. Maybe it’s the bush girl in me; maybe it’s just that I don’t want to die Final Destination style. 

I think I developed this fear from movies or cartoons where people’s dresses get hooked to the moving steps and they just get dragged into the engine and turn into dog mash.

Escalators are the devil. El diablo. 

Failure: Everyone has a fear of failure in my opinion. Everyone. I’m sure that even the world’s greatest geniuses had a hard time with wondering if their craft/work was good enough. I think my fear of failure stems from the fact that I’m really scared to try new things. Even when I try to be more assertive, I get really frightened at the first negative comment/reaction. However, if I don’t take chances, I end up resenting myself and then I spend the rest of the day/week/month asking myself: “Really, what did you have to lose?”

I’m currently working on this fear and I hope that I get to take more chances, be more assertive, and understand that sometimes failure is part of the process.

Death: Truthfully, it’s not the idea of dying that scares me. Everybody dies. Michael Jackson is dead. Death is just like shitting to me. No matter how fly you are, you’ll still shit. You’re never too cute to die either. Death will find you whether you’re Miss Universe or one of the great unknowns in a flooded Lagos street. What scares me about death is the next life: what will I meet in my grave? Did I please God enough before my death? Will I be sentenced to eternal damnation?  The possibilities of what can befall one in the afterlife is what scares me. I hope when the time of my death comes, I would’ve done a few things that would grant me a place among God’s angels.  

Xs and Os