Inhalt

Dedication

To love: the unseen force that inks my pen:

Love for humanity…

Love for writing for humanity.

To the young students of today:

The parents of tomorrow…

To my many friends and numerous foes:

The combined forces that brought me here…

To all those I met along the way

For coming and going out of my life…

To all those who cared to stay

For not giving up when I was down…

To family:

For loving, caring and helping me…

Author’s Preface

Buying and selling take place every day, everywhere and all the time – destinies are sold and bought after rigorous negotiations in the market places of the world. Wondering why and how people could descend so low as to buy and sell destinies, I realised that both buyers and sellers are simply unconscious actors; the market, a stage. However, buyers are fewer than sellers in the market places of destiny – more and more people sell their tomorrow in the uncertainty of TODAY.

I have come to realise over my few years of existence that success is a choice; only those who make it stand a chance. However, it might be disappointing to know that whoever chooses to succeed in life must as a matter of necessity let go of TOMORROW. This is, probably, because the present cannot be fully realised and actualised living with one’s tomorrow today. Is that not where we often miss it as we outgrow one age group and move into another? No one tells us not to live too close to our dreams; not to peep behind our heads; not to sleep with our eyes open. Yet, we learn these things and more from our interactions with the world around, above and below us. Above all, no one ever tells us not to live with our tomorrow today.

This book is, therefore, borne out of a cumulative thoughts and efforts to bridge the gap between fantasies and realities – an effort to help teenagers, especially those in High Schools, and emerging youths face their fears and lead a meaningful and well-defined life. Parents are not in any way left out; they are moulders of destinies – moulders are readers.

Fear…

The future is bright

If you do it right;

Fear may come around

And throw you to the ground.

You may be beaten

But won’t be eaten;

When you feel threatened

You mustn’t be frightened.

Fear will come like a bully

To tear and break you fully;

Rise up when you fall

And be stronger than a wall.

FEAR

... Your biggest fear is your greatest enemy...

It comes and grips your heart; takes your breath away and makes you lose your cool. It stays around – around your world – and makes you look like a fool. It would not leave except you chase; except you rage – until you change. FEAR is a negative transformer; chase it or it changes you.

If life were to suggest an acronym for FEAR, it might just be:

F – False

E – Evidence

A – Appearing

R – Real

By virtue of that, FEAR becomes False Evidence that Appears Real. This simply means that fear is an idea that exists in abstraction and, therefore, not as dreadful as we often think – it is just the coming alive (manifestation) of the repressed thoughts, feelings, aspirations, desires, and so on, locked in the “unconscious” on the “conscious” person, as the psychoanalysts might explain it. It could however, be false or real depending on a person’s emotion. For better understanding of the acronyms assigned to FEAR above, I would endeavour to explain its meaning accordingly.

FALSE

False, in actual fact, is a descriptive word for anything that is not in accordance with the truth – It is artificial, fake; could seem real at times but not actually so. However, it might interest you to know that humanity determines what is true or false – reality is a relative concept.

EVIDENCE

The word Evidence is the eventual information that indicates whether a particular thing is useful to an examined effect or not. This sheds more light on the subject matter, FEAR. It is obvious as read in FALSE above that whatever is not real has no eminent evidence.

APPEARING

The present continuous verb “Appearing” means coming into existence. You do not need to tell a blind man that what is not real when the sun shines cannot be real when it becomes dark at night. There are only two sides to a coin; it is either head or tail, as it can never be the head and the tail at the same time. Therefore, whatever is not in existence never exists in the physical and tangible world until we bring it to life.

REAL

The adjective real can be explained in so many ways but only a few would be needed. When something actually exists or happens, it is real; when it is genuine and not artificial or counterfeit, it is also real. Whatever is worthy of a proper description and can be perceived by the human senses – sense of sight, hearing, smell, feeling and touch – could be real. Finally, whatever has no imaginary part is indeed real in all sense of reasoning.

Having briefly laid the foundation for the construction of this book, it is time we begin to lay the bricks, layer by layer, step by step until the building is erected and inhabited.

Let’s get started!

Your Biggest Fear; Your Greatest Enemy!

It is very correct that your biggest fear is your greatest enemy. Whatever you cannot withstand in life is likely to give you sleepless nights at any confrontation. When I was in primary school, there was this class-mate of mine who was very good at bullying other pupils. He was physically strong and had commanding voice and stature. The sight of him alone terrified me and sent me shivering most of the time. He was pretty good at scouting. When he noticed that anyone had a fraction of fear for him, he took advantage of it.

I managed to avoid him for as long as I could. He was neither a friend nor a foe; though I somehow hated him for bullying other pupils, especially those I regarded as my friends. One fateful day, I fell into his much awaited trap. As a senior pupil in Primary Five, he intentionally punished my younger sister, who was then in Primary Two. She insulted him; thinking he was in the same class with me and I should be able to rescue her from him.

As expected, he started to beat my kid sister who would not let go of him. One of the pupils at the scene came to alert me of the danger at hand. Immediately I heard what was happening, I became a shadow of myself. I could certainly not watch him continue to beat my sister, at the same time, I could not confront him. However, knowing my sister would not give up until someone intervened, I decided to be brave for once. I went straight at him and pushed him off her. Then, he left her and faced me squarely. At that point, I knew it was a case of no retreat, no surrender.

My biggest fear had clapped down on me. I would not plead with him in order to earn my sister’s respect. He slapped me and I attacked him immediately. In the end, I was well beaten. However, I took consolation from the fact that I put his back to the ground first and I never stopped fighting until he finally got tired and ran away. From that very day, I was never scared of him because I already knew what he could do and was seriously getting ready for him with a strong determination to pay him back in his own coin.

It was a thing of joy that I was brave enough to confront him at last. Prior to the confrontation, the thought of him alone scared me from going to school at times. Aside from that, my bravery also benefitted other pupils in my class because they were no longer afraid of him too. The fight clearly exposed his weakness and we were all waiting to exploit it to the fullest, even if it meant fighting him in a group of two or more.

Your biggest fear could be likened to that class-mate of mine. If you remained silent in order not to get beaten, then, you may never know peace until you get rid of it. The moment you are able to pick up enough courage to confront your fear (whatever it may be), you become a no-go-area for it. However, you might not be able to do it alone without the support of others. No man is an island; seek help when and where necessary.

See your biggest fear as an opposition you must defeat before climbing the next ladder rung of success. That is one of the few possible ways I think you can successfully overcome that fear that scares you to death every day of your precious life – Confrontation is the key. “Bravery is not all

Impressum

Nächste Seite

Nächste Seite

Seite 1 /