"Fear Is A Friend Who's Misunderstood"

Megan's friend Amber wrote this essay and presented it tonight at a Thank You Night at Highland High School. Profound and Beautiful.

"Fear Is A Friend Who's Misunderstood"

Saying thanks to someone can be the easiest thing in the world, but it can also be painstakingly challenging. In this case, it's a little bit of both; but maybe that's only because of fear. Anyway, what I mean is, I guess it really only depends on what you want to put into the work to convey that certain feeling you want your reader to have when you're done and why or why not you're accomplishing that. Really, the only reason for you not to accomplish that is fear. I believe that anyone has the dexterity to do at least one thing great, let alone say thanks.

Whether the fear sprouts from thoughts of embarrassment, failure, danger, or any threat in general, you have to know it's okay. Tonight I'm thanking one of my friends for showing this to me. In the past year she's gone through a lot, but she pushed through anyway because it was the only thing she could do. Watching her go through all the pain, discomfort, and emotion really displayed for me how much a single person can endure being so scared and full of fear. Seeing her now, being so happy and herself again, shows me how fearless and brave she really is. If you met her for the first time now, you probably wouldn’t see her as being a victim of leukemia, but rather a winner of the battle against it. She was scared at the start, but she pushed on anyway and came out a stronger person than before.

Thank you Megan, for showing me that being fearless isn’t necessarily about being free of fear; but actually having fears and getting over them, because fear is really just there to help you in the end. Thanks for also being an incredible friend. I really am thankful for having you in my life.