Fears Circa 2006

Fear

I am not a coward, but I do have several fears that I have yet to overcome. Most people have fears that they are ashamed to admit. The shame comes from telling people that they lack the courage to face something that others may not find frightening or scary. However, there are many fears that people share. For most people, these include spiders, high places, sharks, or darkness. I also share in some of these fears. While fears may come in different forms to different people, in each case they are all usually difficult to overcome.
One of my greatest fears is of great white sharks. This fear started when I was little and I accidentally watched Jaws when it was on T.V. Everyone who knows me is aware of my fear. I make no attempts to hide it because in a way I feel my fear is justifiable. After all, great white sharks have been known to attack people and there are few people who could survive that kind of attack. Although I fear sharks, I have no real fear when it comes to being in the ocean. That doesn’t mean that I want to go out in the middle of the ocean, but I have no problem wading in water at a beach. My fear is most plainly shown when a great white shark is shown on T.V. Memories of the movie Jaws come back, and I usually end up covering my face or running out of the room. Despite the affects my fear has on me, I have made some attempts lately to overcome them. I sat through the entire movie of Jaws. It was not as frightening as I remembered it. There were only a few parts that scared me, and that was mostly from surprise. I am now eager to watch Jaws 2 and 3, especially since I know they are less frightening. But I still get nervous when a shark comes on the television, and I refuse to watch the movie Deep Blue Sea. Though I have mostly overcome this particular fear, there are still others I have yet to conquer.
I have always been interested in the supernatural. I was told that when I was younger, my parents and I lived in a haunted house. I can account for this as well with some of my memories of early childhood. We lived next to a cemetery, and my parents and I can remember that things would always go missing. A remote control that was on a table would go missing and my parents would search all over the house for it. Then three days later it would end up on the table. I don’t really fear ghosts in particular, but there are times that I feel paranoid that I am not alone and there is someone there that I can’t see. Even that fear wouldn’t have bothered me as badly had I not seen movies like The Exorcist and The Entity. I am interested in ghost stories, but I wish that I could erase the memory of those two movies. Both deal with evil spirits that purposely hurt and try to kill people. What’s even more frightening is that The Entity was based on actual events. Being harmed by something you can’t see or defend yourself against is a recurring fear I have. It is also a fear I may not be able to rid myself of.
These are some of my fears. They are fears that I hope I never have to deal with in reality. They are both forces I cannot control or defend myself against. Luckily I think I can avoid sharks fairly easily. I just stay away from the middle of the ocean and television shows with killer sharks. As for the evil spirits, I think I might know what to do if I encounter one. After all, I have seen ghost shows, Unsolved Mysteries, and even read some books on the subject. Although these fears do affect my life, I don’t let them control it.