I tightened my sweaty knuckles over the handles, eying from him to the ground, again and again, going back and forth. How do they even get to know that it is time to let go, opening up the cage and saying fly little bird fly, Who Me? But I am not ready yet, I am not ready yet to let go, besides have u seen the world out there? What if I fall? Get slammed, walked upon? What if I break my leg, shatter my wings .No mommy daddy I don’t want to go and you can’t make me. Well here I was proved to be wrong .Actually they can, so here I was sitting on my very first two wheeler, been asked for taking it for its first ride.
Me : But daddy I don’t want to, I am scared.
Dad: there is nothing to be afraid of princess I am right by your side.
Me : What if I fall and hurt my self ?
Dad: You won’t if I would be holding on to you.
Me : Promise you would not let go ?
Dad: I promise.
So I finally found the courage to push the paddles a little, it helped a lot seeing my dad over the shoulders. I felt like a bird who for the first time flattered its wings in the open air. I turned around to whiteness my dad’s proud face. But to my surprise he wasn’t there, he had let go of me. The distance that had now emerged between us felt like a distance of eternity.
How could he, didn’t his promise meant anything to him? He knew I was terrified, he knew I was scared. Still he left me all alone. He lied to me. I put my feet down to put the bicycle to a stop. Gave dad a long perplexed stare, I didn’t know what to say to him, so I tried to storm right out of the park. But he got a hold of me. Never then I was ready to take a ride on that bike ever again. I didn’t do so because I feared of falling. Fate and dad both tried to teach me a lesson that day, but I guess I was not ready for it back then. I had preferred running away from my fears, and I continued running away from them until I didn’t learn the lesson the hard way.
It was a 9th grade presentation. I knew I had to present it in front of a room full of people. I feared those eyes that would be right upon me when I would be presenting at the stage. I feared the judgments the people there would make about me and most of all I feared that I would indeed mess up. The little girl on the bike told me to run away. But I didn’t run away this time and faced my worst fears. I stammered, I forgot my lines and stood on the stage motionless. I lived through those moments. And I survived and I am no longer afraid of speaking in front of public anymore.
There are many times in life that we just want to run away and hide. Because we fear we would not be able to make it. We fear of humiliation, we fear being left alone in this crowded world. The fear of failure can prove to be several time worst than the actual failure; it is what breaks you more over the time working like a slow poison. The only way to live is to look in its face and tell it I am not scared of you anymore and walk right over it. Conquer it and beat it. One can’t stop living; stop taking those wonderful chances that life unfolds just because they fear the unknown. To be alive we have to pronounce our fears to be dead first. And that can be only done once we face them and make them powerless.
