F.E.A.R.

Greetings and salutations, fellow Writer's Marchers! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Joseph Frederick Kindelsperger; University of North Florida alumus, Dopey Challenge finisher (definitely look that up), and soon-to-be writer extraordinaire. I am a driven personality with a fascination for a wide variety of topics. I am excited to take part in the 2014 Second Annual Writer's March! So, let's get started.

To officially begin my writing career, I will discuss fear and the role it plays in our lives. Fear is a force that is highly familiar to most of us, and in many cases intangible or even imperceptible. Fear thrives in our own shadow and stalks us everywhere breathing dark whispers into our hearts and minds as we go about our daily activities. Sometimes we do not even know why we fear something or come up with reasons that are lies (i.e. applying for that job, talking to that gorgeous girl or guy, taking the trash out at night). Other times, we cannot even perceive that we make decisions based on our internalized sense of fear. It is as if, out of habit, we create our own patterns of avoidance that lead us in circles around the object of our fears, never confronting it. Things like going to the same restaurant over and over, not inviting people to join your group of friends, writing despite being good at it, etc. Fear kept me from joining the March last year, and it may be what keeps others from joining this year.

That is not to say that fear is absolutely detrimental to our success. Fear can be an angel just as often as it can be a demon. Fear is what keeps you from going out into the hazards of the unknown. Fear also saves you from the dangers that you know, but may have forgotten.

Fear has a phrase that it loves to whisper above all, especially when a challenge presents itself unexpectedly. Not even from around the corner, but out of thin air. Like a ghost with a furious vengeance. Oddly, in these moments that whisper sounds more like a shriek, "F@#* EVERYTHING AND RUN!!!"

In panic, we do just that. F.E.A.R!

In my life, F.E.A.R. has been an automatic response to so many things. Mingling at events with no one to introduce me. Signing up for running events and not participating due to injury or insufficient preparation (See the irony?), and many other things that I am not yet prepared to share. In some instances years past, I have been known to literally run away if a situation got too intense for me. Just thinking about those situations makes me shiver.

Through my experiences I have discovered that fear is not a dictator, but an adviser. All it takes to bring the Fear out of your shadow and into the light is simply two-way communication. Fear will not answer you when you ask it why you should be afraid. That is on you. However, it will obey when you whisper back its favorite acronym, F.E.A.R.

"Face Everything And Rise", you tell it. In time you may even discover that you were never telling Fear to back down, but yourself to step up.

In writing, we have a voice. This Writer's March is a grand opportunity to shed whatever fears we have, if any, and raise our voices to make them heard. I look forward to discovering what each participant here will write. As a novice I have no doubt that my growth in blog-writing this month will be substantial. Although I hope everyone enjoys this event as much as I know I will, I also hope that we will all come to identify something that we individually fear. Then face it, and rise.