Storytelling Week 4: The Boy with One Fear

There once was a boy so ready to go to college he could hardly contain himself in the days leading up to his departure. His mother worried a lot about him though. The boy could see the fears his mother had for him, and when he asked her about them she gave him a looooooong list of all the things troubling her; classes, making new friends, taking care of his health, the distance from home, etc. The boy ignored her, saying that he wasn’t worried about anything at all! He would be fine! The next week he set off to college.


Within the first week he met many people, and made many new friends. He was already proving his mother wrong, he thought. He mentioned to his new group of friends that he was very excited for this new adventure in his life, and had no fears at all. They were all shocked, seeing as they all had at least one fear when it came to college. His first friend asked him how he did not fear anatomy, as it was the worst class of all. It was terribly hard, and would take up every second of his life, but the boy was still not afraid of the challenge.


He wasn’t afraid losing touch with his old friends either, as another friend had mentioned. He knew that even if he did not talk to his old friends as much, they would never lose their special friendship forged over the past four years.


Over the next several months the boy faced many new situations, some good and some bad. He kept a positive attitude throughout them all, and was excelling at this new college thing. He had joined the best fraternity, survived pledge-ship, was making an A in anatomy (literally unheard of!), and had plenty of great new friends! Nothing fazed this kid.


…..That is until one night at a party. It was his first night that he was allowed to talk to girls (that was a no-no when he was a pledge). In his mind it was no big deal. He had figured out everything else having to do with college life, and this was just another adventure, or so he thought.


The night was turning out pretty well. The boy was having fun with his friends as usual until he saw the prettiest girl walk into the room. How had they never crossed paths before? She was beautiful! His friends noticed him staring, and started teasing him and telling him to go talk to her. The boy had never been so nervous or afraid in his life, and it took a full ten minutes for his friends to convince him to go say hi. Eventually he went over, shakily, to start a conversation. They talked all night, and made a date for the next evening.

Affection
By Juliana Coutinho

Over the next month the boy got to know this beautiful girl, and asked her to be his girlfriend. Eventually it was time for him to go home for Christmas break. Now it was his mother’s turn to be excited! She embraced him for five minutes until he finally had had enough and wiggled his way out of her arms. He told

her how great everything was, and also admitted his one fear to her. She was so happy that everything had gone well for her son, and even a little happy that he faced some fear that semester.



Author’s Note: This story came from a Turkish story where a little boy sees his mother experience fear. He was very confused when he saw her reaction to what she was afraid of, and did not understand why she wanted to lock the door. He then sets off to find this so called fear, but cannot find it anywhere. There are three different groups he encounters, and each tries to give him a task that will induce fear. Finally he comes to a beautiful castle, which he enters without a second thought. A woman there then feeds him dinner, but when he lifts the cover to the plate a bird flies out and scares him. I adapted this story to a more applicable situation. I wanted it to be able to relate to the fears people have now. I thought of a very stressful situation for many people, which is change. When I started college I remember having a lot of fears going in, so this boy having none would be weird to many people who have fears of their own. I also wanted to show that sometimes it can be the small things that are the scariest, which is where talking to the girl came in.

Bibliography: "Fear" from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).