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Im Not Scared

In 1989, you didn't have to worry about cell phones, computers nor was there the fear of your plane or train being blown up by a terrorist. It seemed a gentler time compared to the way the world is now. Even so, I learned back then what it meant to be scared and more importantly how to handle my fear.

As I look back to that time, I see now that at seventeen I found my first real friends, people you don't really understand you need until they become a major part in your life.
1989 was also the year of another kind of friendship. I fell in love for the first time with Becky, the most beautiful girl you could possibly imagine.

1989 was also the year I didn't have to be scared and lie about where I was going because my parents gave me freedom. They trusted me to do the right thing. I didn't fully understand that this meant they expected me to make the right choices.

I was getting older and sensed I was leaving my childhood behind. 1989 was also the realization that nothing last's forever. The only constant is change. People change, things change. Nothing stays the way it was a second ago. To cope with change, I had to change my thinking. In changing my thinking, I became someone else.

Looking back now, my life seemed simple then. I went to school, lived with my family and passed time with my friends and girlfriend, and marked down the days until my 18th birthday, which was less then a month away but at that time felt like an eternity. Little did I know that in the summer of '89 things would happen that would change me forever.

The person that was once a child living for the moment now became a young man that understood this simple truth: ‘It's the way you look at life and how you deal with the obstacles it throws your way that makes you the person you are'.

I remember that summer holiday like it was yesterday. Almost everyday I was with Rebekah or ‘'Beck's'' as I called her. She was almost 18 like me, had long blonde hair, blue eyes and a shy...