I was afraid to use the school bathroom in grade one.

My mother was called in a few times to clean me up after I pooped my pants in the middle of class. Couldn’t tell you why I was so afraid, but the consequence was mighty embarrassing. To even still have friends after the end of that grade, and nobody call me out on it afterwards, is amazing.

Since then, there have been other irrational fears that have taken many years of serious self-reflection to get over.

Some fears don’t make any sense, yet they persist. We would like to get over them, but instead of confronting them head on and delving into why they exist in the first place, we spend time finding ways to work around them.

We create myths.

Then those myths become truths because we uphold them.

Then those truths become gospel and it becomes excruciating difficult to destroy them. We then pass those truths on to others and get them to believe our story.

Then we ostracize those who come along and shatter those truths by exposing them for the myths they are.

After all this heartache, it might be easier to just confront the fears at the outset.