-
Podcasts
Sign up for our free, weekly podcasts: One features contemporary essays from our NPR series, and one includes essays from the 1950s now airing on The Bob Edwards Show. You can download recent episodes individually, or subscribe to automatically receive each podcast. Learn more.
-
Donate Now!
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support This I Believe's work on radio, on the web, and in schools and communities around the world. Please click here to make a contribution of any size.
-
Gift Shop
-
Newsletter
Our free This I Believe newsletter keeps you up to date on current and future essayists and gives you access to insider news.
-
Twitter
Follow the latest essays and Retweets from This I Believe on Twitter.
-
RSS and Widgets
Sign up for RSS feeds and widgets that allow you to embed This I Believe essays into your favorite sites and services like iGoogle, Yahoo! and more.

Face Your Fears
If there is one thing I encourage people to do is to try something new, Face your fears, and chase your dreams.
I believe in many things one very important it stands out it’s to try new things!
When my family and I went on a cruise last summer we docked in Sicily, Sicily was beautiful but what was even more beautiful was the ocean, but there was a problem I have always been afraid of the ocean, I couldn’t go deep just in the shallow water.
When I was enjoying the ocean, my toes in the water my dad had noticed a girl with her family that was on the same cruise as us, my family encouraged me to take to her and become friends with her and maybe go into the ocean! But as crazy as it seems we became friends. After about a half and hour we noticed a mini boats that you drive by peddling on the sand. So we took one out. I was scared on the inside but I went because I didn’t want to seem like a scared cat if I didn’t go, but as soon as we got out there we had a lot of fun!
There have been a lot of times that this has happened to me, when I went jet skiing, with my dad I was very afraid because the first time I went jet skiing I was very little. As we took off I realized that I had nothing to fear and that it was the clearest ocean water in the world and the worse would happen is a dolphin coming which is 1 in a million. After our hour was up I said can we come back tomorrow?
Another time that I faced my fears but in the end I thought it was nothing is when I went swimming with the dolphins I was scared at first but then when I got in the water with my sister I realized I had nothing to fear.
I also believe that people always do the safe thing, I Believed that too but after last summer I will always be a little crazy, and sometimes to have fun you have to let loose. I think I proved that in my essay on This I Believe.
If you enjoyed this essay, please take a moment and support This I Believe, Inc., the non-profit organization that made it possible. Your donation is tax-deductible.