Fear is a funny thing- there’s incredibly deep fears that root themselves into a person’s soul from a past situation while there are others that are not as serious- yet easy to fear all the same. But a person can’t let these fears get the best of them and limit them from living their best life; instead, they should conquer their fears and live their life to the fullest.

Let’s take a look at Annabeth Chase, for one. As a daughter of Athena, she’s scared of spiders due to her mother’s grudge against Arachne. However, to reunite the Greek and Roman camps, she ventured all the way to Rome to retrieve the Athena Parthenos, overcoming her fear and tricking Arachne into her own woven trap, made from Arachne’s silk. Brave, is it not? Facing your worst fear is scary at first, everyone can agree on that. However, overcoming your fears might be worth it all in the end.

Look at Grover Underwood, Percy’s loyal satyr friend. In Battle Of The Labyrinth, Grover journeys with his companions underground into the Labyrinth, where he has an underlying fear of underground areas. Yet, he still travels through and finds the god of the wild, Pan, at the end of his journey, providing a bittersweet end to Grover’s adventure as he carries Pan’s final message across the world.

Now, I can’t say that it’s easy to overcome your fears- from personal experience, it’s quite hard even for me. When I was young, I fell down a flight of stairs (wow so scary yes). Unconsciously, this accident has caused me to be scared of stairs and escalators- but over time, I’ve been able to train myself to push past and tell myself that I can do it.

Obviously, this can’t apply to everyone. But keep in mind that maybe there’s something that’s making you scared. The first step is to identify why you feel scared or fearful of that certain thing- is it from a childhood memory? Or just a natural fear? After that, work on overcoming it. It will take some time to get over it- might be months or years, depending on how you want to face it. Remember: it’ll all be worth it, and there’s always someone there for you to help.

 

Lila Everfall