Is Danger Worth Fearing?

It's commonly said that you can smell it, or just sense its presence. Your body knows how to  react. The second you feel something amiss the hair on the back of your neck stands straight up and sweat begins to collect on your palms. You are put on high alert, ready to fight or flee. 

Danger. Danger elicits this response in our bodies, putting us on high alert. 

There are typically two camps when it comes to danger. Everyone likes to advertise that they aren’t fearful of danger because who wants to be the wimp that is too scared to embark on the adventure? While some actually mean this because they find climbing mountains exciting and skydiving irresistible, others weakly mumble out a “Yeah sure. Let’s go,” while their heart begins to race and knees start to tremble. 

I am a scared person. I have never been one to admit it, but the thought of possibly hurting myself scares the shit out of me. I think this is because I’ve never been seriously injured. Yeah sure, I deal with my asthma everyday, but the only bone I have broken was my collarbone, and I was too young to remember the pain that apparently had me in tears. 

So, I like to challenge myself, but not to the point where I could injure myself. I love the freeing feeling I get while standing on the edge of a cliff, but don’t even ask me to try a front flip on the trampoline because I might land on my neck. 

Everyone has their weak spots. The things that scare them more than they are willing to admit. I feel like this changes with age, maturity and experience. At least, it did for me. 

I used to be scared of heights, but one trip on the high ropes course at summer camp helped me get over that. Then it was death, but after many conversations with my mom about faith, I feel at peace with my mortality. Now, it’s injuring myself. I guess the next bone I break or trip to the ER will help solve that one. 

All the little feats I would accomplish gave me more confidence to take on something just a bit grander. Slowly and surely, feat by feat, I am conquering my fears and allowing myself to embark on new adventures of which I would have otherwise been scared. 

I remember someone telling me a story about Charlotte Fox, the first woman to summit three 8,000 meter peaks. But it wasn’t a story about the triumphs of the inspirational feats she had accomplished. It was the story of her death. 

Fox passed away due to a fall from the top of her stairs. When I heard my friend relaying this to me, I was stunned. This woman had stared danger straight in the face her entire life. Yet, none of the dangerous feats she had pulled off had killed her. It was instead something she does everyday: a trip down the stairs. 

This story made me put everything into perspective and pushed me to look at things a little  differently. While the things I am really scared of could hurt me, so could the things I do everyday. A drive to the mall could kill me or even something as simple as walking down the stairs could end in a fatal misstep. 

Frankly, the things we do everyday put us in danger, but for some reason, we don't see them like that. We consider jumping out of a plane with a parachute a dangerous activity, but getting in a car, well, that's just an everyday thing. 

I think it's time this perspective flips. That people start going out and doing the crazy thing that fear has been keeping them from. Because, a lot of those crazy things are just as dangerous as the tasks you do everyday. 

I want to leave you with this. Don't be scared of the big things, the big adventures that you have been dreaming of, because while they might harm you, so might the little things. 

That being said, I think it is time I learn to do that front flip.

Art by Carissa Georgelos