My Experience Of My Fears In Cairo, Egypt

As I sit here writing this essay in a formal class setting, I can’t help but ask, where did this begin? The answer is Cairo, Egypt! This is where I pushed through my fears for the first time and found appreciation for my life and gratitude for my experiences. This is where I realized that I really didn’t have anything to be afraid of in my life.

It began five years ago when I was laid off from my job. Being a single mom with four children this took me into a place I had never experienced before, “fear of the unknown”.

What would I do? I received a settlement but it would cover only a few months of bills.

Then I realized, I wanted to show my children the world, show them more than we had been experiencing. The four years prior had

I began planning the trip and within one week we were headed to Europe for a 25 day tour. What was I thinking? Conquering fear by taking a 5 year old and 12 year old twins to the other side of the world by myself! Consequently, I would spend 75% of my settlement for the trip. For this reason, I began to feel more fear. However, my fear of not going became greater than the fear of taking this life changing trip with my family. What if I never get another opportunity to do this with my kids again? My recent experiences had shown me that I would always need to work and I may never have a month free again. It was during Christmas break and my children had time away from school. It was decided, we would be in Barcelona, Spain for New Years! We had an amazing time in Spain, and then traveled to Italy, Greece and

Turkey. All the places my children wished they would go someday. We enjoyed ourselves and had new encounters with the world. We were learning that anything was possible, while gaining knowledge of the world and a new love for travel.

Finally, after 20 days of travel we were headed to Cairo, Egypt. With buildings being blown up in Alexandria I was disappointed we would not see Egypt. However, I was relieved that

You could see and feel the panic everywhere! During the two hour bus ride my young son was crying and behaving in ways that were abnormal for him. I knew he could feel my fear and apprehension. This was real fear I had never felt before; it was fear of the present situation, different than the fear I had felt before the trip. That was false fear created by my previous experiences; for example my children having difficulty traveling, sibling fights or just the fear I was feeling about the future. This was happening now! Wherever we went there were 3 gunmen on every corner. Never sure who you could trust. I watched a rifle swipe my daughters back and saw men try to lure my 5 year son from me. I was so afraid when we reached our hotel the first night, I refused to allow my daughters to sleep alone in the connecting room that was booked. At 4am, I heard a noise and woke to men entering the room my 12 year old daughters would have been in. I was terrified! Within

10 days of our arrival home, the Revolution began and I knew we had been exposed to real present moment fear.

Through the events and happenings on this trip, I learned how to push through the unnecessary fear I cause myself; and how to discern what is real fear and what is