"Courage" by No Name

One fear of mine is the fear of bodies of water. There is not one particular reason for my fear of the ocean, lakes, or at one point pools. For example I am afraid of drowning. Years ago I used to live up in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. My neighbors had a pool so we used to always go up to their house during the summer to play. One day my little sister fell into the pool. She did not know how to swim yet so I had to jump in and save her. A couple days later she fell in again and my neighbor jumped in to help. Thankfully both times she was ok.

When coming to bodies of water I am not just afraid of drowning. Another fear of the ocean is the fear of getting lost at sea. I have a very small fear of getting lost while hiking because I know how to use a map and compass. However when at sea I would have no idea what to do. After getting lost the possibility of starving or dying of thirst becomes greater and does not sound like a good way to die at all.

I also have a fear of swimming in big bodies of water. Im afraid of getting hurt and there are many things in big bodies of water which i do not know about. My mom used to tell me about lake sharks when I was little which scared me a lot. I used to have a small fear of sharks but I believe that might have magnified it. When I was in Hawaii and Costa Rica with my family I went swimming in the ocean. The water was nice and the air around me was warm, but both times I remember being extremely scared because of sharks. When we were in Hawaii we were close to the land and jumped in and out very easily. However when we were in Costa Rica we were on a boat jumping in so we were further from land. It was windy where our boat stopped so the waves were bigger that usual and it was harder to see through the water.

After I jumped from the boat i felt a huge rush of fear because I felt completely alone and was afraid that there was a shark beneath my feet so I swam to the boat as fast as I could and jumped on.

I was proud of myself at the same time I was scared because I was proud that I jumped in the water and took a chance. I think I jumped in because of all the encouragement of other people who were on the boat and jumping off was fun although I wish I could’ve enjoyed the water more.