Freakin' Out!

What is fear?

I would describe fear as a feeling of concern, distress, and anxiety about a situation that is either real or imagined.  Fear can cause people to feel panicked, frightened, and alarmed when presented with something or some experience. It seems the word “fear” is applied more specifically to a particular attitude a person may have toward something. For example, simply the thought of spiders triggers feelings of horror and fright in me. I feel the hair on my neck stand up and I squirm at the thought of a spider touching me. Spiders aren’t the only things I find fearful. I also tend to worry and be afraid of things or ideas that have yet to happen to me. For example I have feelings of trepidation when I do not write down my tasks (related to school or otherwise personal plans) or if I know I need to have a difficult conversation with someone.

Fear can significantly affect your life if you are unable to control the thoughts and feelings of apprehension and fright. Since I was an elementary school student I can recall feelings of horrible test anxiety. To this day, the night before a test I am unable to sleep; what-if thoughts and concerns explode in my mind as I struggle to quiet the noise of doubt. When I sit down to take the test, fear consumes my body. I feel my heart start to race, my body gets hot, and my mind is so overwhelmed with possible bad outcomes that I find it very difficult to simply focus on a question long enough to finish the sentence. Rarely am I able to control my anxiety for the length of the test and I always leave feeling frustrated that I might have done better if I had just focused harder on the questions and answers. Maybe this is why I ended up in a mostly project-based major… :)

Fear Experiment

            For my Fear Experiment, I will be exploring what it may be like for an average student to feel test anxiety. To better understand why some students and myself feel test anxiety I looked up some of the common contributing factors. According to WebMD, there are various factors that include prior unpleasant experiences, poor preparation, perfectionism, and a social atmosphere that places excessive importance on test results. My hope for the experiment is that my classmates will be able to immerse themselves in the experience if just for a moment so they will understand why this is a fear of mine. However, it may be difficult to create feelings of concern and anxiety in my classmates because they know at the end of the class my experiment will not affect their grade or overall wellbeing.