A friend you never want to meet in Public!

Fear is an antonym to happiness!

All language Nazis would kill me for this, but let me clarify what I am going to talk to you about today.

I am referring to the way we receive these two emotions. We want to embrace happiness with our arms, foot, and toes and fear…..well, Fear is fear. We dread it. We don’t want it.

Fear is that friend we never want to meet in public.

All my life I have faced several fears. And each one has been an experience of a lifetime. Though I would cover them in later posts, today I am going to introduce you to my beloved fear:  The fear of big cities!

This parasite is usually found in species that dwell into small cities, towns and villages. I felt like no David to take on to this Goliath and would have rather escaped, if I had a choice. I am glad i did not. I wanted to grow and this made my first encounter with a big city. The journey did not stop there and is still going on, and i wish it never ends.

So what is that scares us about big city? The people are no Zombies?!  Still we are paranoid, scared, thrilled and overwhelmed most of the times. If I have to draw an ECG of my emotions when I enter a big city, this is how it would look:

Your poor heart goes through this because of culture shock and the sheer vastness of the place. I had (back home) never seen people of my age drinking, smoking. I had never been to a pub. I never drank coffee at a Café! So much so that the first time I went to a Café with a guy friend and they served the coffee with the froth art in the form of a heart (like they usually do in all coffee shops) I thought it was Valentine’s Day special and my friend was trying to impress me 😛

You feel you are constantly being judged. You see those eyes who say you are not one of them. You don’t know how to talk, how to dress, how to sit and eat.

It is funny how we get so bothered about strangers and their opinions. In all such cases there are only two options – either you elope or you stay back. And if you do stay back I am sure you will be a part of this vicious circle of self-doubt and courage:

You cry, you hide and then you gather strength. You become a part of the crowd and you invent your own flow. There would be days when you will be teary eyed and you will lose faith. But then you will find your guiding star that will show you the way.

This fear exits for good.

It will improve you as a professional and as a person in whole. It makes you a progressive human.

And one day when you will look back at your footsteps, you will be thrilled about the distance you have covered and the impressions you have made!