FicWad

When you’re young, you always would gain some foolish fears. Complete childish fears like scary stories your older siblings of the boogieman and the dark, tales they used to tell you just to torture your poor innocent soul. Or some phobias like spiders, clowns, and dolls. In my own case, when I was young I feared all of these childish things, but I've grown to love them. Spiders are still a slight phobia of mine that haunts me in the dark; you never know where they could be crawling around. But my fears are ones that I grew out of as I got older. But the ultimate terror I had growing up was thunderstorms. The uneasiness that during a heavy rainfall, tornado sirens would blare and come barreling down on me before I even could reach my basement. Not just that but the bright flash of lightning that lit up my room in the dark night. It was the booming thunder that followed that kept me awake and sheltering myself under the safety of my favorite blanket. I always dreaded the summer months coming, summer months met storms and I always thought each storm brought awful tornadoes.

Nightmares also came with this new fear of storms. It started with a light rain, that I would run to play in with the neighbor’s kids. We would dance in the rain and splash in the puddles with are tiny bare feet. Suddenly it turns into a downpour and suddenly I’m left alone, lightning striking around me and counting the seconds between until the thunder crashes to see how many miles away the real storm was. I was back into my room, and unable to get out. It was pitch black besides the illuminating bright light of my night light; I still had a fear of the dark. The nightmare led on to my power going out, the night light immediately switching off and leaving me with the occasional flash of lightning lighting the room than I was left in the darkened room. Tornado sirens would blare and a second late all I felt was like I was flying. As I grew up I thought by the time I was around then I’d be over it. Obviously the anxiety I felt every time a storm rolled in didn't go away.

By the thirteenth year of living I was still afraid of thunderstorms and twisters during that, which could collapse on me and destroy everything I knew and loved. But I always found the peace in rain. The soft drizzle of rain against the roof, sidewalk, or my exposed skin always put me in a relaxed state. Dancing and playing in the rain, getting every inch of me drenched head to toe, and not caring whether I would get sick of not. The absence of worry in the light rain was because whenever I was in it, I was relaxed and having fun. Recently I realized that I never really listened to the storm, I never actually noticed the peace in what I hated. My mother always tell me when I was not a year older than six that, “Storms aren't all bad, just listen to them.” But I never listened because I was too busy being to worry filled. Just in recent days, the summer season was approaching fast and storms began to roll in every few days. I really just stopped to listen to the rain, and listened to it closely. It was like an orchestra, the lightning was like a silent conductor, waving his baton instructing each instrument. The rain was like the beat of a drum pounding against the earth. Thunder was the crash of the symbols. There was of course the absence of the wind instruments that provided the melody, but making up a harmony to go along with the beat of the rain and thunder. It was the symphony of Mother Nature. It wasn't until that day, with the humid air and cold mixing, a perfect storm came that I got over fear. It wasn't until I actually heard the rain, with the thunder, and the melody playing in my head that I overcame my fear of thunderstorms.

I believe in life, you eventually can get over your fears. I believe in the peace of Mother Nature. But most of all, I believe in rain.

I wrote this for English class, it was a personal essay of my own belief, for something called 'This I Believe' and I don't know I really liked writing it.