Word: Fear

Sentence:

We have all been more fearless than we have been afraid.

Passage:

We forget.

For me, it started in the classroom. Standing in front of students while still feeling like one myself. In a lot of ways, I taught myself how to teach. Every day felt uncertain. Every day asked something of me I wasn’t sure I had yet.

But if I go back even further, I can find it earlier.

In the 1980s, growing up in Mississippi, I was bused into a mostly Black school. It was part of an effort to integrate systems that had once been separated and would eventually drift back that way again. I remember sitting on that bus, heading somewhere I didn’t know, surrounded by people I hadn’t met, carrying a kind of fear I didn’t yet have words for.

The adults in that building saw it before I could name it. And instead of letting it define the experience, they met it with care. They built relationships. They created space. They helped me feel like I belonged.

That experience stayed with me. It shaped where I would later choose to work and who I would choose to serve.

What I didn’t know then is that the lesson wasn’t just about me. It’s something I’ve seen over and over again in schools. When people are met with care instead of judgment, fear doesn’t get the final say.

Fear is a strange thing. It takes up space in our minds. It can protect us. It can push us. And sometimes, it can keep us from stepping into what we’re actually ready for.

Fear is not new to you. You’ve already lived through more of it than you remember.

We’ve felt it before. First jobs. New roles. Hard conversations. Moments where we didn’t know if we had what it takes. And yet, somehow, we made it through.

But when fear shows up again, we treat it like it’s brand new.

We forget the evidence.
We forget the moments we found our way.
We forget that we’ve already done hard things.

And because of that, the cycle repeats.

What if, instead of seeing fear as a stop sign, we saw it as a signal?

A signal that we’ve been here before.
A signal that something meaningful is on the other side.
A signal that the next version of us is trying to emerge.

Oftentimes, the very thing we fear becomes the place we’re meant to grow.

Your Turn:

Where is fear showing up in your life right now, and what past moment reminds you that you can move through it again?

If this resonated with you, send it to one person who might need it.

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