Fear is an innate instinct all humans have. It’s normal and absolutely necessary because it often determines our survival (we call it fight or flight). It is something we experience throughout our entire life, and they’re not always totally rational; as children, we fear everything—ghosts, monsters, darkness.

From the age of six until I was about nine or 10, I was absolutely terrified of mummies, and I was convinced that my tall, narrow closet was the perfect size to be a sarcophagus. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night, look over at the dark, abysmal closet, and then I would jump out of bed and run to my parents’ room as fast as my stubby legs would go. Some people might laugh, but I know that they once had fears just as funny, and they probably still are afraid of funny things even though those fears have probably evolved over the years.

As we get older, we realize that a lot of the stuff that goes bump in the night either doesn’t exist or can’t hurt us. Mummies are just dead relics, the darkness doesn’t kill us. Ghosts and monsters are everywhere and inside us, but we learn to accept that.

Instead, we begin to replace these fears with things that can hurt us, such as losing loved ones, failing at something, being alone.   For instance, my biggest fear is failing classes because I believe it would mean that I’m not good enough—for what, I am not sure, but I know that if I didn’t do well, it would mean that I didn’t do my best, and  that would probably destroy me.

Fear, I think, is the oldest, most profound emotion other than love. It makes people react in different ways, and it determines who we are, but we cannot let it take over us because we also have to be happy, and just live our lives.