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Ariana Riedel
Mrs.Vandervort
English 100 Enhanced
2/25/18
Conquering the Fear of the Unknown
My first semester and to this day I am a small ship of pressure and expectations, lost at sea in
a storm. I try and try, but there is nothing but water around for miles.I crash into a rock and start
sink to the bottom. I struggle and call for help, but noone comes. I sink to the bottom and I give
up. I take my last breath and give into the fear. My last thought is how could I have avoided this.
People can go their whole lives struggling with the fear of the unknown. Thankfully there are a
few techniques that can help overcome that fear.
The first technique is finding a group of people who can help you through the journey.In
David L. Kirp Conquering the Freshman Fear of Failure it says “While the upperclassman
initially felt snubbed by their classmates and intimidated by their instructors, their lives started
turning around when they reach out to their instructors and began to make friends.”(Kirp.Par.5)
When they were alone, they did not have confidence, but the minute they got friends and asked
their professors for help they started to improve. It goes to show that solid group will help them
achieve more, because they have group of people who will be there to help them out. Also
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talking to their intrustors about how they felt, they are always willing to help you out. Never be
afraid to admit you need help or ask for help.
Another technique is overcoming the stereotypes society puts us in. Let’s look at how low
income kids and minorities. A group of low income student and minority students took part in a
study, to determine the cause of them not going to college, or dropping out. “As freshman, they
participated in an exercise. By the time they graduated, their grades were a third of a grade-point
average point higher that their peers in the control group (the difference between B+ and A-),
and they had halved the black-white achievement gap.”(Kirp.Par.12) In society people think poor
and minorit...
