blog #2 Fear

By Autum Robertson

In Gomez’s “Man Up” Chapter 2 Fear beneath the facade, the line that changed my thinking on this course reading was actually at the end of the chapter, “Fear, ultimately, is the reason I have survived”. Gomez starts this chapter off by listing off his childhood fears. He didn't just have one or two, Gomez had so many they consumed his life with anxiety and terrifying thoughts. When he moved to Switzerland Gomez made a life altering decision to kill all his fears. He says it became an obsession. It was his way of finally getting control of himself. His life of conquering his fears was completely turned upside down when his parents divorced. Gomez believed that was the one thing he never needed to fear. He had to grow up fast he experienced all kinds of hardships such as death, having to move, being bullied, and having his own father pretty much tell him he was worthless. When I was reading about all these awful things this boy had to got rough before he was even graduated from highschool,a question kept finding its way into my head. How did he do it? I thought at this point Gomez had stopped using his fear as a motivator, he mentioned it right before his dad told him is heartbreaking opinions about him. But after that I assumed all sense of faith and motivation were gone. Gomez not only understands why his father said those things he forgives him and fears he won't live up to what his papi did. Fear is how he did it, fear is how he has accomplished anything. The line that I mentioned at the beginning of the blog changed my whole point of view of this chapter. The first time I read it I read it as more of a negative story, but after reading that last line I went back and read it again and realized it had such a positive message.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leona-devinne/the-relationship-between-_7_b_8080486.html This website talk about how courage and fear work together. Before reading Gomez’s book and doing outside research I never really thought this way about fear. Its amazing how how one fairly short sentence can change an entire chapter.