Overcoming Fears
Today I learned a lesson, that I'll never forget again. In the course of the day I lost my faith into the underlying good in every human being and then got it back. I went desperate and then was fulfilled with happiness again. And this is my story:
At the Workshop-Day I did the kind-of-reception job and was responsible for all the technical stuff. We did offer some laptops for the workshops but there was a clearly made instruction: ONLY give laptops to group-leaders! So everything went well, everybody got what he wanted, everyone was happy until that guy appeared. He asked for internet-access and I, in my overall state of confusion and lack of sleep, handed him a laptop out. He left me his ID in return. No problem, right?
The drama began about one hour later, when we started to clean up and packed all the stuff. The last workshops ended and the guy didn't appear again to bring the laptop back. I got slightly concerned now, if I did the right thing by handing out the laptop or if it would have been better to keep it at the desk. I mean, what value does a plastic yellow ID-Card have compared to a laptop? What if he just ran away? Half an hour later I was really nervous if I'd ever see the laptop again and started asking people if they know the guy. I began to get angry about my own naivety to believe that people are basically honest and really just loan such valuable things as laptops.
At this point nearly everybody else was already gone, except me and that empty bag. When I then talked to the organization-team and they got mad at me and were moaning about the missing (“lost”) laptop, I really really went desperate and was somehow convinced that this guy decided to keep the laptop.
So can you imagine my face when he appeared about two minutes later? This wonderful participant was self-consciously smiling at me and apologized for letting me wait for so long. I felt so relieved! Not only because I had the laptop back, but also because all those ungracious thoughts about the missing trustworthiness of foreigners proved to be wrong! I got my faith back.
And so I'll carry on believing in the underlaying good in every human being. Because that is, in my opinion the first step to overcome fear, hate and prejudices: TRUST.
At the Workshop-Day I did the kind-of-reception job and was responsible for all the technical stuff. We did offer some laptops for the workshops but there was a clearly made instruction: ONLY give laptops to group-leaders! So everything went well, everybody got what he wanted, everyone was happy until that guy appeared. He asked for internet-access and I, in my overall state of confusion and lack of sleep, handed him a laptop out. He left me his ID in return. No problem, right?
The drama began about one hour later, when we started to clean up and packed all the stuff. The last workshops ended and the guy didn't appear again to bring the laptop back. I got slightly concerned now, if I did the right thing by handing out the laptop or if it would have been better to keep it at the desk. I mean, what value does a plastic yellow ID-Card have compared to a laptop? What if he just ran away? Half an hour later I was really nervous if I'd ever see the laptop again and started asking people if they know the guy. I began to get angry about my own naivety to believe that people are basically honest and really just loan such valuable things as laptops.
At this point nearly everybody else was already gone, except me and that empty bag. When I then talked to the organization-team and they got mad at me and were moaning about the missing (“lost”) laptop, I really really went desperate and was somehow convinced that this guy decided to keep the laptop.
So can you imagine my face when he appeared about two minutes later? This wonderful participant was self-consciously smiling at me and apologized for letting me wait for so long. I felt so relieved! Not only because I had the laptop back, but also because all those ungracious thoughts about the missing trustworthiness of foreigners proved to be wrong! I got my faith back.
And so I'll carry on believing in the underlaying good in every human being. Because that is, in my opinion the first step to overcome fear, hate and prejudices: TRUST.
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