Fear Factor

I have a whole list of things that scare me (or at the least cause me paranoia). I want to share them with you. (Maybe you can stroll down Memory’s Lane with me if you have the stomach for it.)

When it comes to dreams, there are two that occasionally terrorize my dreams. Both are education-related. In dream one, I’m unsure what school I’m in, or the grade for sure. (I’m guessing middle school.) I’m kneeling at my locker to retrieve books for the next class. I can’t figure out the lock combination to open my locker to get my books. The bell is ringing. I’m in utter panic realizing I may be late for class.

Dream number two involves Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC, the college I graduated from in 1986 (see The World’s Most Unusual University). My experience there was pleasant. In this current day dream, I have a wife and daughter, who are somewhere else outside of the dream. I am unaware of the age of me or my family.

For some reason, I am back in a dorm room at the study desk. Though my three roommates are not in the dream, I am aware of their existence. I am conscious of where I am, and what is happening.

There is complete dread at the thought of reliving my college days over. I did it once, and don’t have any desire to do it again at this point in my life.

The only other part of this dream I remember is me getting on the freeway to get to an unknown home destination. If anyone knows what these two dreams, I would love an analysis.

A paranoia I deal with today involves my car. I can back out of our garage, but I will not drive into it. Years ago when we had another automobile; I drove into the garage, and lopped off the right side mirror.

Though I have successfully pulled into our garage several times, the thought of me possibly knocking the side mirror off our Outlander cripples me emotionally from performing this function on a regular basis. (The challenge of backing out doesn’t cause me the same unrest though it should.)

One mental terror involves this blog, Encourage Me. When I go several days without writing something (I consider substantial), I get nervous that I’ve written my last post.

The fear is that there is nothing creative left in my mind. Then it happens. Something worthwhile emerges at home or work or a topic evolves, and I’m back at blogging again.

If you have ever noticed the total number of posts I have on Encourage Me, chances are the well of my imagination will not be drying up any time soon.

For short periods of time, I have misplaced my cell phone (contains all my contacts), my zip drive (has a lot of my writings), and my work I.D. (how I clock in). When I don’t know where these items are, I get rather panicky as they are crucial to my world.

Fears don’t really help us; do they? Many times paranoia is not always based in reality. We are all infallible humans that have erred at times. Sometimes, the test of who we are is based on how well we can cope with our tragedies. In the long run it doesn’t benefit you to close yourself to various things that you deem unpleasant. In the end, life is a journey. How well will you travel it?