We are taught that fear is a wall, not a door. Yes, it can be argued that everybody sees the world this way, but I would counter that our history makes us especially prone to falling into the trap of settling for what’s been given and not standing up to authority. Historically, the price for doing so has been our lives.
I am in a unique position to see fear play out in the lives of new immigrants. More often than not, I have to coach them off the ledge of falling back into the same patterns that they lived by in Estonia. See, what worked there does not work here. And sometimes overcoming the fear of taking a leap into the unknown and going to live in a foreign country is easier than overcoming the fear of actually staying there and making it.
Facing one’s fears starts at the airport when a fresh new visitor, student, or worker encounters a Canada Border Services Officer for the first time. Sometimes the journey ends there. Other times it is complicated there. It takes tremendous courage to stand up to someone who holds authority to decide the course of your life, but there are moments when you have to do that.
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