What is fear? Well, the dictionary says that fear is: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. Is this what fear really means? I feel that fear helps us out in our life. It might be distressing, but it is a huge help in our life. It warns us before we do anything stupid or dangerous. Fear, I feel, is a part of our conscience. It’s sometimes like a little voice that says, “Hey, don’t do that you might get hurt or in trouble.” Some of the most common fears people have are being afraid of: ghosts, snakes, spiders, terrorism, small spaces and even a fear of having the volume of your car stereo on an odd number. I believe fear is just a friend that’s misunderstood. This might just be some line in a song by John Mayer but I do believe it.

Asking a girl to a dance, going on a big roller coaster, and spiders are some little fears that people have. We are only afraid because we may get hurt or think we’ll get hurt. Fear challenges us to overcome these small obstacles and become a stronger individual. Overcome all the thoughts of her saying no or a roller coaster getting stuck upside down. Once we are above all these thoughts we’ll go ask that girl to the dance, and she might say no and, you might get hurt, but at least you’ll have the confidence to ask another girl. If the girl says yes you’ll probably have great time at the dance, but if you don’t do anything you’ll just have fear telling you that you missed out, that you need to overcome it and build up your confidence to become a stronger person.

I used to be scared to ride roller coasters that went upside down. I would always see my friends and family riding on them and telling me, “Peter, you really should come on the roller coaster with us,” or, “Peter, why are you such a baby when it comes to roller coasters?” One day I went to Six Flags with my friends. I was determined to conquer my fear that day and ride the intimidating “Batman.” When we got to the ride I was full of fear, but I knew I had to conquer my fear or I would miss out on a fun time. I rode the ride and when I got off I felt so good about myself, that day I conquered one of my biggest fears. This lead me to try to conquer all my big fears because I knew that fear is just a hurdle to jump over, and after feel accomplished and much more powerful.


Fear is also a friend in the sense that it stops us from doing anything extremely dangerous, or something that will get us in an abundance of trouble, or into jail. There are a considerable number of things that will get you hurt or in jail in the world, so it’s a good thing fear is present to stop us from doing any of these things. Fear stops us from doing drugs because we have fear that the drugs might do something weird to our body, or cause us to do something that will hurt us or get us in trouble. Fear stops us from punching our friend at school because we are afraid our friend might hit us back, or we might get in serious trouble for it. It stops most people from breaking the law. Think of how the world would be if there was no fear. Everyone would be breaking the law and getting themselves killed. Fear is that good friend that always knocks the sense into you when you’re about to do something completely idiotic.

Say some friends were talking about robbing a store of all its candy. Most people would think about how much they love candy and how doing this will give them a multitudinous amount of candy. People would also fill up with the fear that they will most likely get caught in this act and suffer the consequences. They would then tell their friends that they’ll sit this one out. Just like they thought, the friends get caught and sent to the police station. Thinking about how good the choice they made was, people realize that fear was a big help in this situation, and it stopped them from getting in trouble.

Maybe fear is just a distressing emotion, but I believe it’s much more than that. I believe it is force that stops us from doing bad and makes us a stronger and better person. Fear is just misunderstood, it is a friend and it is incredibly important in our lives.