Personal Narrative: How Fear Changed My Life

Fear is a powerful human emotion and a great motivator, it is what carries an individual to their greatest achievements. Fear was the necessity that carried my greatest growth. At a very young age, I remember watching, attentively observing people throwing away and disregarding their American birthright opportunities that so many people dreamt of holding. It was not up until I got older that I started to realize that these people I called family were people I was afraid of becoming. This fear awoke my desire to help make a difference in those who were less fortunate and a determination in becoming the very man my family learned to resent.
I was born in Dallas, TX and lived there up until my family moved to a small town thirty-two miles east called Terrell. Terrell was the type of town where you grew up reading about how a penalty kick helped win the varsity soccer game in the newspaper’s spotlight headline. Life in my eyes seemed standard and ordinary, however, recent family trips to Pleasant Grove quickly changed my outlook. To put into perspective, the residential neighborhood Pleasant Grove located in Dallas is where I first observed a series of encounters, such as automobile thefts in broad daylight, unlawful discharge of weapons and illicit drug offers from locals. This place
Their grades and class participation were quickly replaced by their new pastimes and hobbies. At first, I was dejected and heartbroken at the fact that my cousins were following down a path of violence and delinquent behavior. And as time went by their amounting criminal offenses ranging from possession of drugs to illegal firearms made me want to help them gain a respectable lifestyle. But as time showed individuals like my cousins blinded by their pride easily took offense at the fact of receiving help from an “arrogant” and “egotistic” individual like