Learning English through Poems and Songs

A famous songwriter once said, ‘Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power.’

How important is it for you to acknowledge the challenges we face and find ways to cope with them? Write an essay explaining your opinion with relevant examples from your personal experience.

Growing Pains: Break out of the Cage of Fear

There is no denying that we are all faced with different kinds of difficulties and challenges in our life no matter how old we are. It is especially true in the time of adolescence, when teenagers begin to be exposed to challenging circumstances and problems like demanding schoolwork, peer pressure, competition with peers, bullying, stress, to name a few. And, most teenagers are inexperienced in dealing with problems. Many of them would rather avoid or escape from problems without acknowledging their existence because of their inner fear and lack of courage. They are afraid of facing the harsh reality as it might be too daunting and painful. However, I think it is important for us to take up the courage to acknowledge the existence of challenges and find ways to cope with them so that we will grow out of our innocence and become a mature and responsible adult.

When we acknowledge the challenges we face, we begin a journey of knowing about ourselves such as our personality, our strengths and weaknesses, our potential talent so that we will understand ourselves more and live a more fulfilling life. For example, when I was at junior secondary two, I was afraid of disagreeing with others and offending others. I dare not speak my mind even though my real thoughts are different from others. Instead of pretending to follow and agree with others, I would keep my mouth shut and refuse to communicate with others. As a result, silence became my friend and I was isolated by my peers.  As soon as I felt rejected and isolated, I could no longer hide away my own problem. I came to understand my timid and shy personality prevented me from getting along with my peers. Then I started to reconnect with and be open to them about my real thoughts. Surprisingly, they accepted and respected my different opinions. Our friendship was thus established. If I had not been bold enough to face my inner fear and find a solution to my problem, I would not have made any friends and improved my interpersonal and communication skill.  

When we acknowledge the challenges we face, we will learn to face success and failure with a proper attitude and develop a healthy outlook towards life. For instance, when I was at senior secondary five, I got very bad grades in my academic performance and became the last in my class position. I became socially withdrawn from other aspects of life like having fun or playing sports with my friends as I was afraid they would find out my poor academic results and would laugh at me. I skipped school and stayed at home to avoid facing my academic failure. However, after several days of absence from school, I decided to talk to our school’s social worker about my problem. She helped me figure out that failure is just part of our learning process and academic result is not the whole of my life and that, there is still hope that I can do better next time if I do not give up. Suddenly, I realize that it is not the end of my life and there is still a long way to go ahead of me. If I had not learnt to face my fear of failure, I would not have stood any chance of achieving success.

Facing life challenges is like a butterfly struggling to break out of its cocoon. Once, you acknowledge your problems, struggle with them and try to sort out them, a beautiful you will soon come out and become a wonderful person just like a beautiful butterfly.