Monday, January 28, 2008

Facing Your Fears

Did you know that "Acrophobia" is fear of heights?

"Keraunophobia" is fear of thunder and lightning?

"Scoleciphobia" is fear of worms?

"Cryophobia" is fear of extreme cold, ice or frost. (this is a picture of my son snowboarding last week at Mountain High... notice ice in his beard! He does not have cryophobia!)

And "Alektorophobia" is fear of chickens?
No kidding. These are real fears.

Well, sometimes we have to just face our fears. And that's what Daughter #2 and I did last weekend.


One of my fears is speaking in public. That would be "Glossophobia." (I'm not kidding. I'm not making these scientific words up. Just Google them, and you'll see!) I gave an hour long presentation to the Southern Longarm Quilting Guild. It was a presentation about freemotion quilting. You see, I am an instructor of freemotion quilting and I am passionate about it. I presented a slide show that I created on PowerPoint. I also included music with the slide show. Wow! I think music makes all the difference! To see beautiful quilts that I have been able to quilt for the past 7 years, with film score composer, Thomas Newman music playing in the background, was so much fun for me. It really added to the presentation, I think.

So I guess to show pictures of quilts and speak of freemotion quilting was not as difficult as I thought it would be. You see, I was not afraid because it was a subject I love! Look at the Flickr badge on the right of my blog and you can see some of the pictures.

Daughter #2 has a fear of trains. It's called "Siderodromophobia." She has never been on a train in her life, but somehow she has always had a fear of trains, railroads or train travel. Well, now she's starting a new job in downtown Los Angeles at a law firm. Her bosses will pay for her Metrolink pass since she'll be coming in from the Fullerton station. It really is a great benefit. This will save on gas, wear and tear on her car, and she won't have to sit in traffic. Yuck!

But she has siderodromphobia! So last weekend we went on a 'trial run.' Sat. evening Daughter #2 and her Sweetheart and I caught the Metrolink in Fullerton. My DH went ahead to Union Station to pick us up. We weren't sure if there was a return trip back to Fullerton that late at night.
Here she is with her Sweetheart. She's smiling and looks calm. (she's a good actress!)

Here they are getting ready to board the Metrolink.


The train is just starting to move. Can you tell by the look on her face? This is the face of fear!


She made it! Can you tell by the look on her face? This is the face of relief!

Later we all walked over to Olvera Street for dinner. It was quite an adventure for her.

This morning (Mon.) she text'd me to let me know she made it to her new job. I know everything will be fine. I'm so proud of her for being so brave!

2 comments:

Lady Beekeeper said...

Congrats to your daughter - she is on the road to victory on her fear of trains. Very nice that you felt good about your long arm presentation. How wonderful to have that kind of job!

Becky said...

That's very funny. Congrats to both of your for facing your fears. I too hate public speaking. I took a job training. What was I thinking????