TeenConnect: Your Healings August 26, 2019 Issue

Facing down fear

Jaiden VanDeventer

Originally appeared online in the teen series: Your Healings - June 11, 2019

For as long as I can remember, I’d had a fear of heights. When I was little, I’d want to climb a tree or scramble up the rocks on our family’s property, but this fear of being up high would hold me back.

Finally, I decided that I’d had enough, so I went on a Girl Scout trip that was focused on climbing and rappelling. I thought that forcing myself to face my fear head-on would help me overcome it faster, but it didn’t; it just made things harder.

On the trip, I had to climb big rock walls and go beyond my comfort zone into my danger zone. On one ascent, I happened to look down at the ground from where I was, and my heart started pounding. I tried to talk to my troop leader about it, but all she said was that I would just have to deal with it. She didn’t offer any help. This made me want to give up, and for a while after this experience I did.

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