WELCOME TO MY MENTAL HEALTH JOURNEY!

Everyone experiences fear. Fear of something specific and tangible, such as clowns or the dark. Fear of something more vague and indiscernible, such as a feeling or thought. Whether it may seem simple or complicated, fear is something from which we all suffer, from the meek to the bold.

But what is fear exactly?

In my family, women were generally short and stocky and men were thin and tall. I fit this tendency, as I followed after my mother and grandmother, all of us being on the shorter side with wider hips, thicker legs, and bigger butts. 

It is defined as “something that is successful, or that is achieved after a lot of work or effort; the finishing of something.”

**Trigger Warning**

I can’t even say it. Hearing it spoken brings feelings of unease and anxiety, and, sometimes, visions of the past; visions of an experience at university my freshman year that, astonishingly, one in four women share and even fewer—one in five—report.

You tried your hardest, put forth your best, and it just wasn’t good enough. But did you really fail? You tried your hardest. You put forth your best. You gave it your all. Yes, you FAILED—but does that make you a FAILURE? 

When I was a child, I simply thought that a day would arrive where a switch just flipped and I was an adult. That I would just feel different and be more confident in my ability to take on the world, and that moment would be recognizable in an instant.