How I Lost My Fear of Flying
“Fear is only in the mind of an individual. The only thing you can do in order to conquer your fear is to control your mind”. That was the only thing that came up on my mind after reading the essay written by Mario Vargas Llosa ¬----- How I lost my fear of flying. Fear is a personal struggle. It is only you who can find a way through it; no one else. Although you are afraid of the same thing, it doesn’t necessarily means that you’ll arrive on the same way how will you go through it, in the reason that, you are not always on the same way of thinking. Maybe, many of us will say, “I have done everything, every way yet, nothing really works”. It is because the one that controls the whole system in you, the one who dictates what to feel and what to do, the superior, was the one who makes you fear something--- your mind. The reason why I was saying that fear is a personal struggle was that, you are the one who controls your mind what to think about things and what would this thing appeal to you. The moment you fear of something, you are struggling with yourself. Remember, it is not the thing you are frighten to that you should need to defeat but the other side of you---- the one who has fear.
The way the writer opens my eyes and mind about the concept of fear and how to go through it, through his essay was really unique. In what way it was unique? Look, usually, professional or best writers used to write a piece which is hard to understand and it takes for you to read several times in order for you to catch or to get what he really means. But I think, even this writer can do likewise, he chose to make a piece wherein it could be comprehensive to a reader even if he would read this once. You can’t even imagine that as you read the essay, it seems that you are actually there in his position. Since the words used are not that hard to understand, it is so easy for you to imagine what’s really happening. So the fact that you know well the essay, the more you will be able to make an inference, to get the core of the text and to have a deeper interpretation out of it.
The entire text reminds me of someone. Someone who was so close with the case of Mr. Llosa. He has a fear of heights. He is definitely a crazy, acrophobic young man who used to act like a woman, shouting (a little bit ☺) as if he is not a man, whenever passing on an overpass. He did not want to walk along the corridor of their school building, especially when he was on the second or third floor of the building, in the reason that he was able look outside, making him feel that he was about to fall from his position, down to the ground floor. That’s why his classmates usually see him running along the corridor as if he is always in a rush. Until one time, he went on an educational fieldtrip somewhere in Zambales. He was so terrified when his teacher announced that all of them are required to try the zip line of that resort. He tried to escape and went on the bus immediately but his girlfriend saw him and started to laugh at him, knowing that he is an acrophobic person. From then, he has no other choice but to try than to look like a coward on the eyes of his girlfriend. Of course, he could do nothing but to pretend that he can do it and he is ok.
Every step going upward seems a step going to heaven. The wind blew harder as if he would be blown away. He feels that the environment goes colder and colder yet, he sweats as if he was fresh from a bath. By the time he has reached the top, one of the persons there put a harness on him and let him stand at the edge in a ready position. He was about to shout but he can’t. He doesn’t want to appeal like a gay in front of his girlfriend. So instead, he began to pray. When he was about to open his eyes, that crazy man pushes and he began to fly. Along the line, upon seeing the beauty of the entire resort, he didn’t feel like he was there above, more than that of the height of their school building that he was afraid to before. Well, that was the time that somehow, he has overcome his fear. He realized it is up to you on how you would look on things. It’s up to you if you’ll be frighten of, or will take that as an ordinary thing that should not be fear of. He finds out that if you have enjoy something, or there is a shift of feeling, maybe from fear to enjoyment, you would have lost your fear and started to enjoy. You will be the one to change what would this thing means to you. But you know what, that young man still, as of now, finding a way to completely free himself by that fear. Not just in the zip line of course, but in any situation where his fear would possibly arise. And that young man is no other than, ME.
