What scares you?

Honestly, I don’t really get scared about things that normally scare people. I’m not afraid of heights, snakes or spiders, flying, confined spaces(I’m not a fan of elevators, though.), etc…

I think what scares me most is the thought of the future.

The best explanation that I can give of the feeling is a scene from the movie The Replacements. In the scene, Keanu Reeves’ character, the quarterback, is talking about the feeling you get on the football field when everything is going wrong, and one mistakes leads to another, and eventually you’re in over your head, as if you were stuck in quicksand. It was an entirely cliched movie, but this particular scene always stuck with me.

It stuck with me because I equated it to life, and how a string of bad things can leave a person feeling completely down, possibly to the point that they’re not able to bounce right back up.

When I think about the future, I get that feeling. I think about the years of work ahead of me. I think of taking off to travel for an extended period of time. I think about the possibility of marriage and raising children. I think too fucking much, and it all hits me at once. Then all the sudden, things that haven’t happened, and may never happen, are negatively affecting me to the point that I panic. I’m stuck in quicksand by imagined events.

This is when I have to remind myself to calm down, and stop thinking so far in advance. Take everything in stride, and enjoy each moment as it comes. Because those things may never happen and if you spend your time worrying about them, you’re going to miss out on all the great things that are happening in the present.

Now, how much shit am I going to get for using a Keanu Reeves quote as an explanation?