Watching television and laughing with my friend Cara while in my parents’ room, I thought it seemed to be a good night. The day had been long, and we were exhausted, having sore feet from shopping earlier that day. Suddenly, and out of nowhere the loud screeching of the burglar alarm sounded the house. No longer was I thinking of sleep or the aches in my feet, but the fear of what was to come next. My mom stumbled into the room with my sister, and somehow built the strength to move the enormously heavy dresser over the door.  Cara and I, realizing this was not a joke, became scared for all of our lives. At that exact moment, I never thought I would overcome the newly developed fear of burglary.

The intensity in the room rose as I heard my dog barking from downstairs. My sister grabbed the home phone with her shaking hand. She dialed 911. The nervous tension in my body was released by pulling my loose baby tooth out. My mom, panicking, called my Dad to come home from work. Cara and I lay still in the bed unable to show emotion in our faces because of the shock. We all heard noises throughout the time of the event which slowly came to a minimum. Sitting in the room, I had so much time for unwelcoming thoughts to race through my mind. I began thinking about how dangerous and life threatening this really was. I felt as though I wouldn’t ever overcome this daring night.

At last the police arrived, and begun searching around the house for clues of the invasion or to actually find the invader his/herself. The intensity in the air was still upon us. We hadn’t known whether the invader had a gun or not. What was the invader capable of doing? After a while of waiting, the cop said it was safe to come downstairs. He then told us, “I have yet to see anyone; however the alarm and the police car probably scared him/her off.”

“Thank you officer,” my mom replied, letting him out the door.

The rest of the night none of us could sleep. My dad entered into the house with a concerned and worried facial expression. He then went right to telling us how he saw a figure which looked like a man cloaked in all black clothing, lurking the neighborhood on his way home. The chills rushed through my arms and down my back. I felt as though I was not safe anywhere and I couldn’t ever forget the moment and how I felt in that time. Everything around me seemed unable to protect me. If the cop couldn’t put him behind bars, who could? I could see the goose bumps on Cara’s arms as well. Her eyes grew big and her face turned pale like she saw a ghost. I tried to cope with the idea that these types of things happen, but it was all too much for me. I tried talking myself into realizing he probably wouldn’t be back, whoever it was. Maybe there wasn’t anybody after all. Sadly, no matter how hard I tried to think on the positive side; the fear kept creeping back into my mind; whispering to me terrible ideas which made me feel unsafe and scared.

I thought I’d never overcome this moment in my life which turned into an obstacle for me to lunge over. I had this fear of sleeping at night without my dad home. I had this fear of no protection. I had this fear of always worrying what the future holds. I had this fear of life in general.  I was always watching the alarm at night waiting for the green button to turn red, and make this uninvited sound of what seemed like a never ending scream of terror. However, later in that week I had talked to my mom about it. She had taught me that in order to overcome this fear I had to face the assumption that bad things happen, and I can’t let it get in the way of how I live. I realized I couldn’t live like that anymore. Life is far too fragile to live in fear of what was to come next.