I Did It While My Hands Were Shaking

Dear Delyara, I made the call I had been avoiding for two weeks. I rehearsed it. Delayed it. Walked around with the phone in my hand. Put it down. Picked it up again. My heart was racing so hard you would have thought I was about to jump off something high. The call lasted four minutes. Nothing terrible happened. That’s what fear steals from me most often — not just ease, but proportion. It makes small things feel massive. And then, when I do them anyway, I realize how much energy I’ve spent surviving what was never actually the event, but the anticipation. Still, I did it. While afraid. That counts.