AN ESSAY ABOUT FEARS

I love writing essays. Short essays! Here is my second winning piece in the IOTS Essay contest.

WHEN FEARS ATTACK

Fear is an anxious feeling. It is a kind of feeling that is caused by danger or something perilous. There are various conditions wherein the feeling of apprehension arises. This is an emotion which is hard to control especially in an overwhelming risky situation. People are alarmed because we are reminded to picture of a dangerous scenario. It results to a panic condition. People suffer in an uncontrollable state because of too much fear and anxiety. There are many reasons why people are afraid of something. What and why are people worried about due to a fact that fears aren't controlled. These conditions are quite threatening and very dangerous to them. In a certain context, fear seems a universal emotion because every one of us, consciously or unconsciously, has fear in a particular situation and the like. We have the ability to recognize danger because we can feel it. We anticipate what are the dangerous things will happen.


All people have the instinct to react to an expected danger. Whatever the sources of that fear are factors that control a person's life. The famous Martin Luther King, Jr. once quoted “We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear”. In his quote, it clearly tells and informs about the different fears surrounding us that in any moment, are ready to attack. However, we must have to gather some blocks of sufficient bravery and fortitude to fight and combat or even eliminate these fears. But the question is how we are going to do that. Where will you get your energy to accomplish all of these? A person must be totally courageous to stand against these bothering apprehensions. He or she must be seriously aware to fight against these anxieties. The flood of fear won’t stop when a person remains weak and is not capable to respond and give an appropriate counterpart to push them away. How strong your dikes depend on how much strength do you possess. The lesser a person has the higher the possibility that he or she will be drowned by his or her fears. On the other hand, the more a person has the lower the probability that he or she would not be swallowed by his or her anxieties.

It is vivid and clear that we are responsible to handle everything when fear is going to attack us. We are going to help ourselves to overcome any fears that will come across our journey. In his inaugural address, Franklin D. Roosevelt uttered, "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". If we let fears overshadow us, we will surely lose. But if we remain brave to fight with them and believe ourselves to subdue all the fears, we will be the undefeated champion. They are no match with us. We remain strong and not affected. It will help us boost the confidence that we need to use and face all the fears in life.

FIRST WINNING ENTRY

It was my first time  to join an online essay writing contest. I am a member of International Online Teachers Society over a year ago. International Online Teachers Society (IOTS) was established to improve online teachers qualification, to offer online job opportunities to member teachers and to share applied linguistics, language pedagogy and online, offline educational methodology for the mutual benefit of online, offline teachers in the world. The main activities of IOTS are video lecturing, issuing the certificate of online teachers and publishing global standard online text books to share with IOTSians and students for free of charge. IOTS is also providing free online educational sites contributed by IOTSians with all members of IOTS by posting them on IOTS fan pages.

  

 At first, I was so hesitant to join because I was really afraid since I knew for a fact that many teachers are good joining this contest. It was only during the 23rd edition of the competition that my courage has pushed me to do so. The topic was about "HONESTY". I always read the previous winners and I really found them well and good.

I would like to share my winning entry during the contest. "Be Honest"

We often hear and read this famous quote “Honesty is the best policy”. What is it for? Why do people try to utter and mark this quotation? Whether we like it or not, somehow in a certain point of time, we had encountered this one. If we look into its meaning, honesty is telling the truth. It’s very simple and clear. Honesty is being sincere, truthful, trustworthy, honorable, fair, genuine, and loyal with integrity. It is a very straightforward conduct for every person who wants to live a happy life.  If you are honest to yourself, you feel and react without guilt. You accept your responsibility and you don’t blame others. We evade the consequences of some mistakes and we put the blame to other people sometimes. This is very wrong. Be honest with your feelings. Telling a lie will not definitely help you. If you are considering lying, try to think the consequences later. Could you take the result of doing it? Some people will believe you, but you can’t hide the truth.
You are honest when you turn in a wallet full of money that you found. Don’t be a “finder’s keeper”. Turn in something that is lost and encourage others to do the same. The truth is, it’s not yours. You don’t own it. Find a way on how to return the wallet. Try to think the feelings of the person who lost his it. He really needs it to buy food, to pay his monthly bills, to pay his children’s tuition in school and the like. If you put the situation into your own shoes, what will you do? This question is so simple, however, it will enlighten your mind how honest are you in every situation. One thing that we should not forget when honesty is concerned, the way we express our feelings without anger, without blaming others, without exaggerating, without hurting the feelings of someone else. This is the spirit of truth to put honesty in action. In this way, we are proud to say that honesty echoes the hearts of every person. Be honest even if others are not because you will take the lead to be an example for them.
It is a fact that some people are honest and some are not. They are honest simply because they tell the truth and they make a commitment to do and honor it. A person becomes more truthful if he puts honesty into action. There are multiple reasons why should we tell the truth. First, telling the truth allows everyone to learn from what happened. Second, telling the truth protects innocent people from being blamed or punished. Then, telling the truth helps diminish the chances of misunderstanding, conflict and confusion. Finally, telling the truth makes you feel secure and peaceful inside. In short, be honest.

And this is my certificate ...

Aside from that, I also received a beautiful T-shirt from IOTS. I was so very delighted. People recognized my skill. Thank you IOTS!