Fear a common thread for students

Fear is a primal instinct we experience every day — from the stress of asking someone out to the anxiety of graduating and having to survive on our own.

Julia Vann | Daily Trojan

I recently tried to make a list of the things I fear most. I swallowed my stereotypical self-conceptions about laughing in the face of danger and begrudgingly spit out everything I could think of. The fears that surfaced carried some revelations that I believe a lot of college students struggle to face.

First and foremost is the obvious fear of rejection. The collegiate environment is designed to encourage and nurture new experiences; meeting new people and experimenting with new courses, clubs and organizations.

So why, with all this encouragement, does it feel so unnerving to take a risk? The weight we place on the word “no” causes us to internally exaggerate how one experience or one event defines us — and that’s intimidating. But that “no” might lead to something else even more exciting — it might force us to explore alternative prospects, or give us the opportunity to participate in something we otherwise thought impossible. It’s almost as if we get the chance to “fail forward.”

We also experience a nagging trepidation when it comes to exams. Emotions run high as we entertain such thoughts as, “I’ll ruin my GPA,” “I’ll disappoint my parents,” or “I’ll risk my place on the team.” These types of thoughts are most often disempowering. The trick is to harness this anxiety and turn thoughts of how you might fail an exam into thoughts on how to pass it. Just as easily as that fear can lead you down the path of panic, it can also help you focus on the formula for success: preparing, studying with a classmate and asking questions when you need to. Unchecked fear wastes time, plain and simple.

And of course there’s the one looming event that every college student dreads, the veritable culmination of all of our fears: graduation. Where will we go? Who will hire us? Why didn’t we work harder our freshman year? Seriously, who will hire us? Eventually we all have to grow up and leave the seemingly utopian society of college.

For those of us who have begun to think about our post-graduation lives, it’s easy to believe external factors control our destiny. If we give into that type of fearful thinking, the external perceptions limit our aspirations. It is a tough environment outside our campus walls, yet there are also good things in store for those willing to risk and face rejection.

Upon examination, a common thread woven through all of these fears is a lack of knowledge. If we only knew everything that’s going to be on the exam, if we only knew how that guy or girl feels about us, if we only knew what occupation we would find most satisfying, then we could slough off our fears and take courageous action down the path to success.

Knowledge is key, and it’s why we’re at USC in the first place. It’s clear that the university understands, and not only from an academic perspective — job fairs and on-campus activities demonstrate that USC is doing its best to stamp out ignorance and quell fears in every area it can.

We all have fears, both unique and shared with the entire student body. The understood existence of these common fears, however, can bring a sense of belonging and comfort as we realize we are not alone in our insecurities. We also have the choice to acknowledge fear as a call to action, a chance to focus forward while still being grounded in the present.

So the next time you debate whether or not to take that risk, remember that most people around you probably feel the same way.

Reid Roman is a sophomore majoring in industrial and systems engineering. His column, “Bright Side,” runs every other Friday.