Fearless is
something that comes from the moment and not something that one can simply have
or obtain. Many examples of fearlessness is when one has nothing to lose or
when rage clouds your judgment and it is during those times that one can look
death in the eye and call himself fearless. Fearlessness cannot just only be
seen as “having lots of guts” it can also be considered a form of stupidity.
Fear is something that we as humans have to stop us from doing stupid things
and to keep us alive. To have this thing that can easily keep us alive removed
from us would cause us to do dumb and highly risky things that one should fear.
At the first day of Monticle an example of
fearlessness comes from a person named Ryan. He showed fearlessness at the
first day when he was told that he was a member of the group, instead of his
expected role, a senior. This caused Ryan to have a huge rage in his heart,
sparking a sense of fearlessness. He was heated in the moment and did not even
fear the instructors. This might sound like a good thing but in reality it is
not. Instructors should be
respected and Ryan showed no signs of that because in that instance, he didn’t
fear them or the consequences that would result from his actions. In the end being
fearless did not benefit Ryan. He ended getting himself in trouble and punished
with a strong lecture.
The second day fearlessness was shown from the
general group of Monticle. During this day we were planning our trip across
Trans Canada. During this planning period, determination and perseverance settled
in. No one was thinking “What if we fail?”, “What would happen if we ran out of
gas?”, “What if we just are not good enough to do this trip?”. No one was
thinking these thoughts when we first started this adventure. However at night
when it was time to rest that is when the fear and these thoughts settled in. However
being fearless in this moment has proven to be a good thing. Because of the
fear leaving our hearts we were able to focus on the task at hand and was able
to do the planning. Even though at night when the fear did settle in, it did
not matter as the work was done and we were all prepared for the trip.
On the third day of our trip the exact opposite
had occurred. This was the day that we finally set out and reached our first
camp at Pancake Bay. At Pancake Bay it was like any other campsite. It looked nice
in the brochure and there, but living there is a total nightmare of blood and
disease. This is because since we camped really close to the lake there were
mosquitoes everywhere. Once people got out everyone had an increasing fear of
mosquitoes that only increased by the minute. The only time that this stopped
was when people applied bug spray. Even then no one wanted to leave the camp at
night in fear of the ferocious bite of the mosquitoes. The bug spray however gives people a
sense of fearlessness in itself. This is because when the bug spray is applied
people think that mosquitoes would stop attacking them and many people had the
sudden guts to walk without care. Of course the bug spray does not entirely
work as mosquitoes still attacked but only less of them were attacking. Once
everyone realized this had then grown fearful again. This proves that even
certain objects can give people fearlessness in itself although for a time at
most.
During the fourth day of the trip a
thunderstorm occurred while everyone was sleeping and an act of heroism
occurred. Jason woke up at the sound of thunder and alerted Ryan to the issue.
Ryan being half asleep did not know there was a thunderstorm, but he took the
initiative to go out and close down the tent. Since Ryan did not know what was
currently occurring all outside of him you cannot say he was courageous as he
did not know what was going on. Another example of fearlessness occurred with
Howard. Howard was already severely sick prior to having pizza for dinner. However
he still ate the pizza because he did not fear for the fact that this might
cause his illness to worsen. This could be seen as another example of how
fearlessness had come from an item, specifically pizza. Because of Howard’s
love for pizza he was able to ignore the fact that he was sick and succumbed to
his desire and crave for pizza.
At the sixth day of our trip a major example of
fearlessness had occurred. This is because Billy attempted to drive straight
from Saskatchewan to Alberta. However it failed and we ended up at a mall
within the Saskatchewan and Alberta borders. Billy had stated that we would be
sleeping on the Wal-Mart parking lot. We trusted Billy and without doubting
him, we brought out our sleeping mats and went to sleep right there on the
parking lot floor. Because we trusted Billy’s abilities we showed no fear in
the fact that we were sleeping in the parking lot. This is an example of
fearlessness because it was Billy’s great leadership that made it possible for
us to just lie down on the parking lot floor and sleep. This showed how not
only can moments and objects give people a surge of fearlessness, but people as
well.
The eighth day of our trip might just be the
greatest example of fearlessness out of them all. At this day a couple of
locals in dirt bikes showed up next to us as we were planning the rest of the
trip. A really nice person came by and asked if we saw his friend. He told us
that his friend was drunk and had just wiped out. After telling us that he left
again to look for him. Later, the drunken friend on his dirt bike showed up
near us and started revving his engine. When that occurred Billy got up and stated
that his friend went to look for him. Even though he left we all knew that they
would be causing trouble at night. However we all knew that they were going to
come back and maybe attack us at night. Billy called the cops and a park warden
showed up to help with guarding the camp in case they do actually commit a
crime. Even though it may seem like everyone was scared, it was not actually
true. Many people were just worried that our friends would get injured if a
confrontation did occur. This shows that through our training many people were
able to shrug off such minor fears as bikers and think about protecting their
friends. One tent decided to have sentries guarding it and throughout the night
the instructors and seniors were also patrolling the area so nothing would go
on.
Our group being called fearless can be
considered a great honour. This fearless team has shown fear in many examples
and they want to work together along this adventure to conquer most of their
fears. However other parts of this group can be considered too fearless as
well. Ryan, a member of this group might need to learn to fear things in order
to stop himself from doing stupid things as a means of survival. Other people
like Mike and Grace would wish to conquer their fears so that they can truly be
given the name fearless.
Fearlessness is a trait that is incredibly
essential to being a leader. Sometimes courage in itself is not enough, as it
will always eventually fail in the spur of the moment. To know in the right
times to eliminate your fear so it would not be in your way or your train of
thought is a highly essential thing to have. Fearlessness however, like all the
other leadership traits, is not something one can just have. It takes many
years and many different adventures and experiences for someone to truly become
fearless. In this essay we showed how fearlessness could be a good think and a
bad thing. We have showed how being fearless can make a person strong. It can
also make a person stupid.
So my question dear
reader is, is being fearless a good thing?
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