Through embracing fear comes courage and hope

This I Believe

I believe that through embracing the fear of leading a life of failure produces the stability of courage and hope to carry on.

Have you ever had to go through your life thinking that all you would be able to do is fail because of your surroundings such as family, school, and neighborhood? For many years my mother has been a single parent struggling to support two children. The funny thing about this is that my grandmother was a single parent. Sometimes to me it seems that being a struggling single parent is like a chain reaction in my family. I always find myself thinking if my life going to be the same? Is it just meant for all the women in our family to be single parents?

Sometimes I hate to admit that I come from a very poor family although you will not be able to notice it. We have never really been able to get everything that we wanted out of life but my mom did her best to give us what she could right along with all of her love and affection. I wonder does my mom have fear about what might happen to us from the way we live from day to day, if so what gives her the courage and strength to carry on? I believe that fear is what gave my mom all of the courage and hope that she has today.

Another one of my surroundings that made me feel that I was destined to live a life of failure was the surroundings of what supposed to be a child’s home away from home (school). I did not go to a very outstanding High School. The school had poor teaching skills, small gangs, pregnant teens, etc. but it was not the worst school. I would sometime wonder how I am going to make it to college with this type of foolishness going on around me. My mom went to college but she did not finish so I always told myself that I was going to continue on in life trying to reach above her standards.

Sometimes late at night I would always say to myself how did I make it this far? I graduated from High School in the top percent of my class, I do not have any children, and I am now leading a college life. I just truly didn’t believe that I would make it this far because I feared every little aspect about living a less fortunate life. The whole way I said that “I think I can”, “I think I can” just like that Little Blue Engine! If you strongly think that you can then you will succeed. I believe that embracing the fear of leading a life of failure gave me the courage and hope to make it to the top in life!