Personal Narrative: Fear In Jekyll Island

Fear. There were five of us on the boat, me, my younger brother Ian, my cousin Dylan, my dad, and our fishing captain whose name I don’t remember but was a heavier-set guy with a cheery attitude, like a fisherman version of Santa Claus. It was early in the morning, the sun was just rising, and I felt a slight chill for the first time since my family and I arrived in Georgia, courtesy of a light breeze combined with the morning’s cool air. Looking back, the ride was quite beautiful, our small fishing boat perfectly centered on the canal between Jekyll Island where my family was staying, and the Georgia mainland. Pine trees lined the shore, the water shimmering from reflections of the sun, we even saw a group of dolphins playing in the distance.

I prayed that day that I wouldn’t have to encounter the creature that I feared, but I guess not all of your prayers can be answered. I have always had a weird fascination with fear. What it is, why it happens, and how to overcome it, I have spent many hours of my life just thinking about the concept of fear and how something you cannot see impacts everyone's life. Asking questions like, “Why do some people have different fears than others?” Or “Do people's fears stem from experiences in their life, or are they born with those specific fears?” But most of all, I continually find myself coming back to this one specific question that has no doubt not just been pondered by me, but many people across the world, “How do you overcome fear?” When trying to explain fear's purpose, in my eyes it’s relatively simple. Although I’ve never researched to see if my hypothesis is true, I have long assumed fear itself is just chemicals being released into our brains, to keep us out of danger and preserve our lives for as long as