Embracing Fear, Grateful for Finding Strength

By Arjun Krishnan, 13.5

A December 2025 Monthly Story Challenge Winner 

 “We must travel in the direction of our fear.” ~ John Berryman

“Danger is real, but Fear is a choice.” ~ Will Smith [Movie: After Earth] 

“FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt 

Fear is good because you learn a lot, once you overcome it. I have always been afraid to lose. I thought, “What if I lose and someone gets mad at me” or “What if I don’t have the chance to do this anymore.” Because of this, I always felt sad when I lost. 

Two years ago, I played in a basketball tournament, and we lost. We worked so hard, but we still lost. I was devastated. Up until that point, I had never experienced losing a competitive basketball game. We were all so disappointed as we entered the next season. We were low in spirits and that sadness motivated us to take revenge. We started to win games. In fact, we won the tournament. When I won, I felt so good, because I thought winning was the best feeling ever. We hadn’t lost a single game up to that point, and we had just won the championship. We had the same team the next season and we crushed every single team we played, until the finals. We were winning in the first, second, and third quarters. But we started to feel overconfident, and that overconfidence came back to bite us. In the 4th quarter, everything went downhill. We started to make silly mistakes. We gave away layups, the ball, and started to foul. At the end of the game, the score was 38-34. We lost. Our team was sad, and I was disappointed. But then I remembered something: we beat every single team up to this point. That means that the teams we played had lost and must have felt sad also. But they were able to move past it. 

I then realized that losing isn’t so bad and that I just needed to embrace the feeling. Even though I lost many more games, from then on, I knew that losing is part of life. This experience was very important and taught me a lot because it showed me that you learn from your mistakes. Now, when I lose basketball games, chess tournaments, or games in school I move on because I know it’s okay to lose and I am grateful for the chance to improve and for the opportunity to keep playing. 

Before I faced my fear, I was scared to lose. But now I know that fear is not a bad thing, because you learn a lot when you overcome it. 

Photo: Kenneth Schipper on Unsplash