This post is a personal one, but maybe some people can relate. I am going on my fourth year as a marine science major, and i am afraid of the ocean. Okay, so maybe not the ocean in general, but the open ocean for sure. I think as a kid i may have watched Jaws one to many times, or other movies or TV shows that may have caused some deep rooted damage. I refuse to go out on a boat if i know we are going far enough that i wont be able to see land. Now i know that ships have navigational devices and a plethora of other technology that allow them to know where they are, and even what is going on underneath them. However, to my anxious mind this offers little comfort.
If i cant see land I feel lost, like i don’t have anything to base my location off of. To me, not seeing land seems to quadruple my chances (in my mind) of suffering a long, miserable death at sea. I think the depth of the sea is what gets me. There are giant creatures swimming right below me that i cant even see. I am so small compared to them. On land i am safe, I am at the top of the food chain. At sea however, I feel so tiny. The sea is a crazy beautiful world, but it is also unforgiving. I know that the probability of getting killed by a shark for example is 1 in almost 4 million with only 5-15 shark attacks resulting in death each year. This does little to comfort me though. I sheer size of the ocean is enough to cause me to panic.
I’m still trying though. My passion for the sea outweighs my fear of it. I’m hoping that if i spend enough time on boats and in the water, it wont scare me so much. I’m hoping to be able to condition myself not to be so fearful because at the end of the day, I love the ocean and all the creatures in it and even my biggest fears couldn’t keep me from it.
