We all live in fear.

Walking confidently down through the eerie school halls in my purple argyle sweater vest and booty shorts, I approach the room which I am destined. Unashamed of my apparel, I am ready to have a brief practice for my upcoming performance. My nerves are at ease even with the idea of dancing in front of hundreds of people in close to no clothing. In the silence of the dim hallways, I came to realizations that changed my perspective. A stunt on my mind which a team member was afraid to execute was directing my thoughts. Frantically wondering, each idea and question that comes to mind, is similar to an ant that thrives in the heat of the summer looking for material to survive. This simile has relevance. Does an ant have fear going about knowing it is the smallest living creature? Anything, living or nonliving, is a threat to this ant’s life. Yet, this ant still goes out and travels until it finds what it needs. It is fearless.

As the walls seemingly started closing in, my thoughts are disrupted with the music and voices of my team. No longer silent. I thank the noise that put an end to these odd thoughts. Grabbing the cool metal of the door knob and pulling the door open, the conversations have suddenly changed to an excited greeting along with requests of assistance. Though, moments before I enter the mirrored room, I saw through the narrow window that the door possessed that an acquaintance of mine had been attempting to work on getting a back flip without me. Matt would prepare, but he wouldn't commit.
“Dan, I need you to help me out with a back flip. I can’t do it by myself.” he said with worry in his voice. Matt needed to be able to flip and land for the event that was taking place in less than an hour.
“Why are you afraid? You know how to execute the motions and movements and you had them better than I did.” I say with slight disappointment. His skills had passed the ones of his teacher, but fear is holding him back from accomplishing what he desires.

In those moments I asked myself, “Why do we worry so much about our fears? Why are we so afraid of failure or comfort?” The answers will never be clear to me. I find it easy to overcome fears if I can see the final results being positive or gets me closer to a goal. We don’t have long of lives, so why waste it on living in fear instead of being proud of our accomplishments?

Seeing Matt fail at committing to the flip, I saw more than just a disappointed and frustrated face. People make fear their limits to life. Gaining happiness and pride of what you have achieved is just a matter of forgetting the fear you are creating for yourself. Being able to be proud of yourself and knowing what it took to get what you wanted is a very rewarding feeling.

As I placed my slightly cold hand on Matt’s sweaty back, I gripped his 145 dollar vest with one goal in mind; to prove that he can gain the confidence to beat the fear out of his brain. He stuttered and hesitated because he didn't believe in himself. With simple words and faith, I spoke, “You can do this. All you need to do is overcome this fear that is holding you back from this.” He put his bare arms out in front of him, perpendicular to his upright body, swings his arms down for momentum and throws them up along with the power behind his jump. As he is upside down with his face tensed, I thought to myself, “He did it.” His out of place shoes hit the black cemented ground. The vibration traveled up his body and I felt it in my hand. It took him a moment to realize that I had not helped him at all and that he just needed to break the comfort of myself standing next to him. Instantly once he realized this, he said excitedly, “I got this!”. He walked to the middle of the room with our team standing in a semicircle around him and flipped effortlessly. He overcame the fear of failure.

When I was able to pass on my personal realizations to Matt, both of us had an equal level of happiness. His being that he can back flip whenever he was and mine being his experience is a testimony to my statements and thoughts. The world possessed with fear can’t hold us back. We are strong enough to overcome.