Phobia-Inversion

"Face your fear to overcome it."

I remember there was once in Secondary Two when we were in a Bonding Camp. A camp that trained us to harness teamwork among our fate-assigned comrades. I was grouped with a bunch of people who weren't proactive. "Easy come, easy go" was their mindset at the beginning. So was I. On the second day of the camp, we tried the "Flying Fox" thingy. According to our instructors, it was just like an attraction in an amusement park. However they weren't serious. In my group's turn, I volunteered to be last, with hopes that I could avoid the trail altogether. Back then, I was aerophobic. But volunteering to be the last, although tempting, was by far the worst thing ever to be done. As people were sent to 'hell', they screamed. They were afraid that the rope would snap and send them down in a flurry of pain and hopelessness and hit the ground with an impact of horror and regret. Of course that never happened. When there were only the three of us left in the group, a huge crowd was already gathering below us. My group(those who finished), along with three other curious groups of people, watched helplessly as the other two girls who have yet to try shed tears of fear and hesitating. They cried, "I'm too scared. I don't want!" Yet they were still pushed down the Flying Fox by the instructors into their fears. Funny thing was, as their journey slowed down as time passed, their fear was overcome with excitement and amusement. When their burden was over, they laughed, "That was fun. I wanna try it again!" Then it was my turn... The instructors felt my feets were shivering. Yet I showed no signs of nausea nor fear. "You confident?" They asked. Truth was, I was pretty scared. A maelstrom of fear and nausea within my mind, and a poker-face on me to the instructors. As they finished the preparations, they attempted to push me. But I stopped them from doing so. I told them, "I can do this myself. Trust me." They laughed, I smiled. Unlike others who were 'sent down' by the instructors, I jumped down in my own accord. Totally opposing my own human instincts. As I felt the absolute downward force on me, the phobia-inversion occured. My fear was overcome. I felt the crushing wind on me. The people below me also cheered and laughed with astonishment for my spontaneous courage, whcih at first seemed strange to me, then subsequently it was pride. I felt pride as I was able to overcme my aerophobia. Since then, I hoped for another try in the Flying Fox one day. Also I was inspired after the phobia-inversion: a childish dream of being able to fly and soar in the sky one day... Well... I just wanted to share this today because I had consecutive dreams of being able to fly. They weren't nightmares. Just that I liked the feeling of being able to lift myself off my feet for more than a second. Really felt cool when I was able to defy the laws of Gravity without being condemned for doing so. Wouldn't it feel great if one was able to take off from the ground, touch the clouds and feel the breeze from above the ground? Strange thing was... Those dreams I had doesn't include floating and drifting along the atmosphere. It was something like I had to run and accelerate, then when I reached terminal velocity(which in layman's term, maximum speed), I had to start running with my hands on the ground like most quadrupedal animals do, then finally push myself up from the ground using all my four limbs with absolute force upon reaching the second stage of terminal velocity. Really fictional, but if you can visualize it, you can decide for yourself whether it is cool or dumb. I won't judge anyone for despising this, because it was Just A Dream.