My first…

There’s always a first time for everything, everything that you end up doing in the end anyway. (Yay for complicated sentences)
I remember my first diving lesson very well, the fear, the hyperventilation (total waste of good air, I know), the thrill of ending up with my head under the water, and eventually diving to 9 meters or something. It made a huge impact on my life, it is when I learnt that I can actually do anything I set my mind to, and overcome any fear I have. I went diving because I was afraid of water, fusix will be able to tell you that I started freaking out and hyperventilating when *he* put his head under water. After he came up again (safe and sound), I realised that I had to do something about it, I didn’t want to be afraid of something so silly. So I learnt how to dive, I even picked up underwater photography and I loved it.

Today was my first driving lesson, something I had been afraid of too. I have never been afraid of learning to drive. I have never been afraid of not learning to drive. I have always been afraid of everyone else on the road. People do stupid things. I got slightly annoyed with people not using their indicators, but then again, I couldn’t find mine fast enough for my liking a couple of times too, so I can’t be awfully picky about that.
After a little while, I realised that it’s not that hard to anticipate, I don’t feel confident that I can actually hit the break in time in case something happens, but there is a competent instructor next to me who will hit the breaks in time. (Not that he needed to today) No one is going to let me drive on my own before I can pass a test that says that I am able to tell the difference between the gas and the break :-)
I learnt that I don’t need to be afraid, I’m not legally driving that vehicle anyway, so who cares? :-)

I don’t know what more I used to be afraid of, but right now, I feel like I can deal with any fear, and I can overcome anything. Perhaps now is a good time to start thinking about base jumping ;-) Whatever it might be, I know I can and I will learn to deal with it. After all, it’s true, the only thing you truly have to be afraid of is fear itself, if other people can manage to do something as simple as diving, driving or whatevering, you can do it too, you just need to let go of your trusted fear.