Fear...Not

• Divya Chari, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2021

My feet trembled. My eyes burned. My heart was pumping blood swiftly like a cheetah. This was it, the operation theatre. The place I was going to get my tonsils out. The only blur that comes to mind was me, 5 years old in a white cap crying endlessly in an elevator. My parents were worried too. You should have seen their faces. How would I come out? Would I sound the same? Nobody knew the answer. Just had to wait and see. It was like a bottomless abyss with no answer.
I arrived in the theatre. Thoughts whizzing around as fast as lightning. Sure, I was five, but my brain was so … unpredictable that I could have drifted away with the slightest sound. They placed me on a bed. Rock solid, but cosy too. “Mum, dad … you coming?”, I asked anxiously. “No darling, we have to wait outside. I promise you will be fine. Besides, you are in good hands”, my mother responded. I nodded calmly, like everything was fine and I was going to be ok. Except it was just the opposite.
When I woke up, I felt like a new person. My fear was that the doctors did it incorrectly and I would have to stay in hospital. I got even more frightened because no one was in the room with me when I woke up. It was like an invisible ray of anxiety and fear that could make its way into anyone’s heart when their scared, and when it got to your heart you could never remove it. Thinking about that made me even more petrified. But little did I realize that I was giving my negative feelings a way to express themselves. My negative feelings wanted to enter my heart and my brain but needed one more thing. It needed me to say I give up. Well yes, I was about to, when I suddenly realized something.
Why am I so scared? The world is not over. These doctors are trained, and I know so many people around the world who have had this surgery. They were all fine and I would be too. I could either let the fear get the better of me or realize that it’s all fine. Generally speaking, if you chose to realise that things work out ok then you would live a happy and joyous life. So, after all this thinking, I knew what choice to make. I learned that you can still be cheerful whatever you go through. It’s about understanding that life will give you challenges, and you can get through them if you stay positive. I decided to do just that and guess what...it worked out just fine!!