Fear of the unknown

"It’s okay to not know, but it’s not okay to not try."

I heard this quote today and it really made me think. It’s so simple and so true. Why are we usually afraid to try things? For me, it is usually a fear of failure or the fear of the unknown. But you have to accept that sometimes you might not know things, and that’s okay. As long as you don’t let the fear of the unknown stop you from trying. There are many times in my life where I’ve been scared of a situation solely based on the fact that I didn’t know exactly what to expect. And there are many times that I decided to skip out on things that probably would have been awesome. I think it was my freshman year of college when I learned that nothing is worse than missing an opportunity that could have changed your life. I was scared to go to college. I was terrified. I even remember yelling at my dad during move in and asking him how he could possibly leave me there. In my head I just knew I couldn’t do it. After all, I didn’t know what to expect. There were so many unknowns and I was scared. Sometimes I still think back to that. What would have happened if I hadn’t bit the bullet and stayed at college. I would have come home with my parents and missed out on so many amazing opportunities. I wouldn’t have had the same wonderful experiences or made the same great friends. Yes, I’ll admit, it was scary and it wasn’t always easy. But really it only took about a week for it to go from “unknown” to familiar. That was one of the first times I remember pushing past my fears of the unknown, but trying anyways. And since then I’ve done many more things that have pushed me out of my comfort zone. Not all have been such pleasant experiences, but I tried, and now I know. And I didn’t miss out. So next time you’re debating whether to do something or not, don’t let the fear of not knowing hold you back. Go ahead and try. And soon it won’t be unknown anymore.

PS- There is an excellent Meredith Grey quote that fits in perfectly with this:

A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. Never leave that till tomorrow, he said, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don’t know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I’d have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you’re wrong? What if you’re making a mistake you can’t undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can’t pretend we hadn’t been told. We’ve all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today’s possibility under tomorrow’s rug until we can’t anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying.