[quote]Originally posted by Birdie Menagerie:
[b] Weepingddragon: Tell us what you wrote for your essay. :) [/b][/quote]sure thing!
Scariest Moment
Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real, you woke up panting with sweat dripping off your forehead? Have you ever had a dream that you tripped on pavement and woke up to find your knees bruised and battered? How do you know what is real and what is not? In the dark, things seem to be what they aren’t and only light can reveal their true form. My scariest moment really wasn’t real, but sometimes the mind makes them so real, you can actually see them, touch them, smell them, taste them, and hear them. My scariest moment was nothing more than a dream, a terrible nightmare. A nightmare that provokes fear, doubt, and the perception of reality.
According to Webster, a nightmare is a frightening dream that usually awakens the sleeper and it can often produce a feeling of anxiety or terror. With terror, there is the element of fear. In my dream, my nightmare, this element, this fear, blazed in my vessels. My heart beat a hundred miles an hour, if it beat any faster, what would happen to me? Fear, state of being apprehensive or afraid, fear. In those couple of hours that I lay tossing and turning in my bed, I experienced sheer terror, I experienced fear.
Screech! I opened my eyes, there it was again. The shrill chipping of nails sliding slowly down my bedroom window. It’s a dark, windy, cold night and even though the thick branches are thrashing against the side of the house, the only thing I hear are the scratching of razor sharp nails. Can this really be happening to me? Is this reality or is this in fact, a dream? Doubt darted through my mind and the frail attempt to analyze my situation is all too much for my brain. My eyes tell me that I am awake yet, everything is so surreal, I could doubt my very existence.
I shuffle through my memories, how many times do I have to wake up to truly be awake? I quickly glance at my alarm clock, 2:00 AM. It had been quite a stormy night and I had difficulty going to sleep, but still, who would pull a stunt like this? Who would make scratching noises at 2-o-clock in the morning? Surely not one of the stupid neighborhood kids. Suddenly my parakeets burst into screeching and smashed against the cage. I dashed over to the window by their cage, perception. “Perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information.” (Wikipedia) It is the perception of reality that tells when to be angry, when to be scared, and it stimulates our senses, “manifesting as stimuli.” (www.hawaii.edu/powerhills/DPF.CHAP7.HTM)
Our mind is the very thing that makes us scared. It is the imagination that turns a pile of dirty laundry into a vile beast in the dark of the night. My scariest moment was nothing more than a dream, a terrible nightmare. A nightmare that provoked fear, doubt, and the perception of reality.