Kentucky YMCA Youth Association
Caden Lucas (Left) shares how far he has come as a KYYMCA leader, and what he considers the gift of fear. Pictured with fellow 2022-23 student Board Directors.
In this life there is a complex mirage of elements that guide us. On one side of the spectrum there is passion, life, strength, and light. While on the other there is darkness, death, and weakness. And while this adumbrated statement may seem dramatic, it is nothing but the truth. At the end of the day, there is always one factor that lives to tell another tale; fear.
Most notably, fear is intricate, and has a multifaceted design that is undeniably perplexing for the human mind. Fear is ego, fear is failure, and fear is a tool for the unkind. But even in the midst of its chaos, fear is a gift. A gift that we as a united body of people always see as something to cower to. Likely because fear is hardly ever wrapped in a colorful box tied up with string, but rather hideously revealed through hardships, pain and trauma. Yet, we still can’t seem to acknowledge the beauty that fear brings. Whether we take note of its presence or not, fear drives us to create, innovate, and initiate in ways we never thought possible. It shows us what we’re made of, where our limits are, and then tells us to push beyond them. It challenges us to hug the ones we love a little longer, and to build-up the ones that first tore us down.
Now, in all reality, you may be thinking that this is all backwards. That fear is what holds us back from our full potential. That it keeps us down, cowering, and tells us that maybe we aren’t good enough. But that is where the Y steps in. This organization has been challenging and training its constituents to push past fear for over a century. Through all of the things that this organization so passionately does for students, we are showing them how to build the bridges of life for themselves, but also for others. We help them realize their passions, and then how to use them for the greater good. We show them the danger of comfort zones, and how to persevere through the traps that society sets out. We show them the livelihood of uncomfortability, and that doing the hard things in life is more worthwhile than taking the path traveled by most. We show them how resilient they can be. We show them love, passion, and strength, but most importantly, we do what everyone else is too afraid to do; we show them fear. But not only do we help them see it, we show them how to persevere through it.
It is only through a long and egregious road of maturing, development, and, as cliché as it may sound, taking the road less traveled that we realize the gift that fear is. Because without fear, we would never have been able to discover the faith we gained from moving beyond it. But reluctantly, there is usually a Y around every twisty road to show us how far we can go, but most importantly, to remind us of how far we’ve come. Thank you.
