The future is a strange creature. Sometimes it wraps an icy finger around your tightening throat, like steel that soaks your warmth. Then you feel its lips by your ear, and its cold breath makes you shiver. It whispers in a curt echo, “I’m waiting for you.”

And sometimes it’s the lover we dream to meet on hazy sunny mornings, the moment when we wake up. It’s like waiting for the sun’s warmth to melt on our skin and for ice cream to melt in our mouths after a long run. It’s a boulevard of pulsing dreams.

I fear the future, and maybe you do too… because big decisions are daunting, growing up is intimidating, watching days melt by into photographs and memories and journal entries is way too sudden.

Questions like “what am I meant to do in life?” are hard to answer — and not always certain. Questions like “who am I?” are scarier, with ever-changing and not always nice answers.

Getting into college, going for higher studies maybe, then after that a career. And all the things in between. Life. What if I fail? What if I don’t fulfill my dreams? What if I make big mistakes and do nothing worthwhile? What if…? What if…? What if…?

I fear not living a meaningful life. I fear tomorrow. And I fear my fear. It’s kind of stupid, isn’t it? To be scared?

No, not really. That’s what I’ve begun to realize. To be scared is to be human. It’s normal and it’s okay. In fact, it’s good to have the right amount of fear, sometimes. It helps us grow, it gives us opportunities to be brave, it helps us learn about ourselves on this rocky path called life.

There is a difference between fearlessness and courage.

Today is for us to make dumb mistakes and learn from them, to ask what seem like stupid questions and get answers. Today is for us to accept and embrace our fear. Yeah, I’m scared. Terrified, actually, because things can be pretty confusing. And that’s okay. That’s how it’s meant to be — imperfect, full of obstacles, and seemingly impossible.

Bravery means to move forward even if your knees buckle and your mouth tastes bad. It’s to keep going towards our goals despite our fear. It’s to fail, fail and fail and still try to succeed despite how hard it is, how hopeless it seems. And it’s to smile in the bleakest moments, keeping hope that you’ll make it better.

I believe in you. I believe in all of us — the youth of the world.