Reaction Paper 2

At the beginning of this third part, the author evokes the idea of fear and how it affects our lives and our perceptions of what is around us. For people who have fear, change is very frightening. You would prefer having the semblance of control in order to feel safe, which is not compatible with change. But change is inevitable and is an undeniable constant, and having this fear of change means that you would live through life with constant fear. Instead of trying to avoid fear, or anxiety about certain specific matters, it needs to be addressed. We have to accept that there is nothing that we can control, and that everything we have and everything we see is external, meaning it is never a fixed state, and that there is nothing in life that we can count on always being there. If we do not realize this, our daily lives and every experience we have will be tainted by this constant fear of “losing control”, which is irrational because we never truly have control over anything. Instead of truly living out our experiences to the fullest, we live them with fear.

The author says that getting over this fear is possible, and that we just have to let go, instead of trying to live our life “protecting” our fear and planning everything around it, which will allow us to be truly free.

Ever since I was a little girl, my parents have struggled with me because I would never let things go. I never wanted to get rid of my old toys, even the ones which did not work anymore, or that had several pieces missing. I would be upset over a furniture in the house that had been changed as well. My reason at the time was probably stupid. If my memory is correct, I thought all these objects had feelings, and would be sad and abandoned if my parents gave them or threw them away. But my mother told me that from how I was at this early age, she was convinced that I would grow up to be a person who hated change with a passion, and growing up, she turned out to be mostly right. I already knew it was because of fear, but I still don’t know how to let go of it. It’s been one of the things that gives me the most anxiety in my life. Usually, I am reticent to do anything that is outside of my comfort zone. It does not mean that I don’t do them at all, but I always feel anxious before. I felt it before moving to France for a year, and I felt it when I was moving back to Morocco. What keeps happening is that I would dread that chance, but once it happens, it’s never as bad as I imagined it to be. But the thing is, I still feel that this fear is only increasing with time and because of certain experiences that I’ve had. I hope that I will one day be able to completely let go, and stop allowing fear to overcome me.