Break the seal

"19 years have passed. Since I was born, since I ever put my feet onto this life.

The first steps were smooth, as I was surrounded by barriers, barriers that protected me from outside dangers. Those continued to surround me, until they became the barricades that prevented me from reaching the world beyond those walls.

One of those can be shyness, created during the time those barriers remained in existance. Shyness is the feeling of apprehension when approaching or approached by other people, or simply when dealing with social matters where many unfamiliar people are gathered together. Biologically, the term means “tends to avoid human beings”, and that is one very huge disadvantage to the person. Even though it can be easily cured, mostly by practising to create the opposite feeling, boldness, most people cannot even muster enough courage to quit being shy. In my case, it was during my high school years, where I, objectively, did not receive much encouragement from people around and subjectively, did not want to. However, through learning English, I knew that I was in no way worse than other people, and that helped brightened me up.

Another, more serious, is when someone have lived inside the box for too long, a safety disillusionment is created so deeply inside the ideology of the person. When dealing with unfamiliar subjects, the person automatically create an egg shell to hide back into the shadows of safety, just like when they were inside the box. Trying to be cold and strong, likes to work things out alone and not willing to listen to other people’s opinions are some common, noticeable symptoms, all of which are by no means easy to treat. Unlike shyness, people with safety disillusionment participates in social events, try to socialize in every way they can, but never actually succeed even if they think they do. It is either because they tend to prove themselves superb, or they are too protective on what they are doing that they never request help, accidentally isolating themselves in the process. So in the end, when they are close to forming relations with some people, they push other people out, creating negative feelings towards themselves. That, however, was not my case. I was able to stop before things went too far, by keenly spending time observing different people’s behaviors, evaluating them and work out a way to approach different people, thereby easing the fear of losing my own safety. Furthermore, a class on communication skills and constant practice helped me realise the importance of cracking my own egg shell.

Overall, my biggest obstacle to “break the seal” was to get over troubles and be myself. "One have nothing to fear but fear itself". And through trial and error, I have discovered that: my attitude alone can shape the world and my actions can change it!"

This is an entry by Magus for the essay competition. Do you have better essay? Please send to cross.border.camp@gmail.com before June 24.

Essay competition
- Competitors must send their essay of no more than 500 words on the theme "Overcome the barriers of cultures and languages" answering the question "What is the biggest barrier in your life and how did you overcome it?" to cross.border.camp@gmail.com before June 24.
- All essays will be listed on website of Cross-border Camp for public review.
- The essay that receives the most votes from judges will be announced on June 24. Who wins the most favourite essay will get a free ticket to Cross-border Camp.