First of all I have no idea what "quakin' in your boots" from the above picture means. I hope it isn't anything bad. My trusty friend the Urban Dictionary was of no help to me so I apologize ahead of time if it means something nasty to any of you. And if it does, just know that I have no clue...but you should all know that by now.
But, I wanted to use it because I thought it was a cool picture and that it raises a good question...WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU HAD NO FEAR?
It is kind of an interesting thing to think about. If you seriously had NO fear what would life be like?
There really are only three main things in life that I am deathly afraid of...
Fear #1: Being found dead, fat and alone, and half eaten by wild dogs. Or dying in my bed and having no one notice that I was gone for so long that I melt (at least partially) into my mattress. I know that this fear sounds crazy but when you are a singleton you think about these kinds of things.
Fear #2: Getting killed and chopped into little pieces by a serial killer or by Sasquatch. How can anyone normal not fear this???
and last of all but perhaps my greatest fear ever is...
Fear #3: Large bodies of water and all that large bodies of water entail...including: sharks, drowning, finding a bloated dead person in the water, etc, etc. The only real nightmares I had as a kid that I remember all involved the ocean or some big lake. And although my fear may be natural born I would like to take this opportunity to publicly and personally thank my brothers and male cousins for reinforcing my natural fear by constantly tormenting me, grabbing my ankles, and telling me that there were piranhas, sharks, and/or snakes in the water any time we went swimming in a lake as kids.
So, because I'm turning the big
30 this summer (which marks the beginning of the end for me) I decided that it was time to try and conquer some of my fears. Because what if I live my whole life and never experience some things just because I am afraid? What if I miss out on super cool stuff? Or what if I die, knowing deep inside that I was a total unadventurous wimp?
And since as long as I'm single I can't do much about fear #1 and as long as there are serial killers and Sasquatch in the world I can't do much about #2, I figured that the best place to start was fear #3.
And so, on May 1st, 2009 I went to my first SCUBA diving certification class. (I'll tell you more about those classes in future posts because even just taking the class is quite traumatic for me and I'm sure there will be things to share about the class.) But may I just say that for those of you lucky enough to not have fear #3 you may not understand why just taking a SCUBA class would be a big deal. But it is a huge deal for me...it is a step in the right direction to overcoming or at least suppressing my greatest fear. And just taking the class means that I will actually have to SCUBA dive in a large body of water. Great, what was I thinking?
Now don't start thinking I'm a wimp...I have been skydiving, I did live in a house with 45 frogs, giant spiders and snakes this past summer, I have been to Africa 3 times, I love roller coasters and crazy scary rides, I've been spelunking in some pretty tight places and haven't freaked out, I'm not afraid of flying, etc., etc.
BUT...Fear #3 makes me fear and tremble just thinking about it.
So, wish me luck as I scare the living $#!% out of myself by getting SCUBA certified and leave a comment and let me know...What would you do if you had NO fear?
First of all I have no idea what "quakin' in your boots" from the above picture means. I hope it isn't anything bad. My trusty friend the Urban Dictionary was of no help to me so I apologize ahead of time if it means something nasty to any of you. And if it does, just know that I have no clue...but you should all know that by now.
But, I wanted to use it because I thought it was a cool picture and that it raises a good question...WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU HAD NO FEAR?
It is kind of an interesting thing to think about. If you seriously had NO fear what would life be like?
There really are only three main things in life that I am deathly afraid of...
Fear #1: Being found dead, fat and alone, and half eaten by wild dogs. Or dying in my bed and having no one notice that I was gone for so long that I melt (at least partially) into my mattress. I know that this fear sounds crazy but when you are a singleton you think about these kinds of things.
Fear #2: Getting killed and chopped into little pieces by a serial killer or by Sasquatch. How can anyone normal not fear this???
and last of all but perhaps my greatest fear ever is...
Fear #3: Large bodies of water and all that large bodies of water entail...including: sharks, drowning, finding a bloated dead person in the water, etc, etc. The only real nightmares I had as a kid that I remember all involved the ocean or some big lake. And although my fear may be natural born I would like to take this opportunity to publicly and personally thank my brothers and male cousins for reinforcing my natural fear by constantly tormenting me, grabbing my ankles, and telling me that there were piranhas, sharks, and/or snakes in the water any time we went swimming in a lake as kids.
So, because I'm turning the big 30 this summer (which marks the beginning of the end for me) I decided that it was time to try and conquer some of my fears. Because what if I live my whole life and never experience some things just because I am afraid? What if I miss out on super cool stuff? Or what if I die, knowing deep inside that I was a total unadventurous wimp?
And since as long as I'm single I can't do much about fear #1 and as long as there are serial killers and Sasquatch in the world I can't do much about #2, I figured that the best place to start was fear #3.
And so, on May 1st, 2009 I went to my first SCUBA diving certification class. (I'll tell you more about those classes in future posts because even just taking the class is quite traumatic for me and I'm sure there will be things to share about the class.) But may I just say that for those of you lucky enough to not have fear #3 you may not understand why just taking a SCUBA class would be a big deal. But it is a huge deal for me...it is a step in the right direction to overcoming or at least suppressing my greatest fear. And just taking the class means that I will actually have to SCUBA dive in a large body of water. Great, what was I thinking?
Now don't start thinking I'm a wimp...I have been skydiving, I did live in a house with 45 frogs, giant spiders and snakes this past summer, I have been to Africa 3 times, I love roller coasters and crazy scary rides, I've been spelunking in some pretty tight places and haven't freaked out, I'm not afraid of flying, etc., etc.
BUT...Fear #3 makes me fear and tremble just thinking about it.
So, wish me luck as I scare the living $#!% out of myself by getting SCUBA certified and leave a comment and let me know...What would you do if you had NO fear?
9 comments:
So last summer I was at the beach out here and there was suddenly a huge commotion at shore. Some people were pulling someone out of the water. The emergency crews came (picture Baywatch without all the pretty people)and did CPR and took the guy away. But one of the lifeguards stayed behind and said the guy looked like he had been dead for hours. He literally floated down the beach into and some people happened to see him.
Not that you should worry about that. It almost never happens.
Good job on trying to conquer fear. I think I don't do things that scare me very often. Too scary for me. I can't even imagine having no fear.
I also have your #3 fear... I'm impressed with the scuba lessons, I've done the indoor scuba diving, but only to like 10 ft deep... Even the deep end of that scares the $#!% out of me... Plus whats with the creepy fish that live in those tanks- YUCK!!
DO IT!!!! and then we can go togehter!
I'm terrified of deep water, too. I blame it on watching Jaws at a young age. So, on our honeymoon, Aaron made me ride on a jet ski out between some cruise ships. I think he wanted to kill me. He also made me snorkel and a fish totally ran into my ankle. Ugh!
Large bodies of water must be scary for everyone, me as well! When ever I would go jet skiing or water skiing I was soooo freaked out to be dangling there in the water waiting to stand up on the water....yeeks. Also on our cruise I never really did relax. Then when we went snorkling I was pretending that I was stung by jelly fish, within 5 minutes I was stung 3 times! I would totally discourage snorkeling in Peurta Vallarta! It was horrible!
I too as a kid (and a few times as an adult) have nightmares of being out in the ocean and sharks are circling me. I am on a tarp and if I slide of this I know they will rip me apart!
I am also a little scared of the dark... mostly outside though.
(my friend megan, when asked this question she says hermaphadites and midgets.) horribly rude but sorta funny.
"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." I have always liked that quote. (FDR gets the credit for it, but he probably got it from someone else.)
I don't know what my greatest fear is. Maybe it is that one of my kids will kill themselves doing something they are not afraid of or that they are trying to prove they are not afraid of.
Oh, and the $#!# means heck, right?
Dude... I am IMPRESSED... Remember the motor boat in Mexico and you hyperventilated and almost died (or thought you would rather die! :) I can't believe you are really doing it... Chris took me once to a scuba class and I couldn't handle it. The thought of actually looking over and seeing fish that close to me. YUK! I wouldn't even want to see a little Nemo that close to me!!! I think I would spit out my regulator and aspirate and die!!! Best of Luck... I can't wait to hear all about it!!!
Well, I'm not sure I'd WANT to have no fear if it meant kissing a spider. Those things are not cool. At all. EVER.
So, let's pretend spiders aren't part of the equation. If I had no fear I'd go scuba diving by an iceberg. Seriously, icebergs are freaky.
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