The Rational Fear of an Idea

He ain't blinking...

    When you ask someone, "What are you afraid of?" you typically expect it to be an object or a creature. You expect the response to be the usual; spiders, snakes, darkness, small spaces, clowns, or water. And there are some instances where you get something weird like; balloons, feet, pickles, fish.... O.K. I'll admit that last one is mine. They are just slimy and have these wide eyes that NEVER blink, and I'm sorry but I don't trust a damn thing that don't blink. But aside from all of these things that humanity would could still considered quite normal to be scared of, there are still a few other things that some people would considered weird, and if not weird, explanatory.
       Let's think of those people that we know with those strong personalities. Those people who are determined to be the best at everything, the people who have so many friends you don't think it's possible to know all of their names, the person who you would consider a class clown even if he/she was more annoying than funny. Now erase that person. Try to picture those moments in your life without them. Picture that class, that competition without that specific person there in your memory. How different is it? How unimportant does that memory almost seem without that person being the main purpose. Did you know that that in itself, is a fear for a lot of people?
     It is the fear of being forgotten, the fear of not being needed, or noticed, or remembered for anything. It is the fear that you don't have a purpose in your life and that you actually don't make a difference. Average people have these exact fears cross their mind everyday. It shapes our behaviors and what decisions we make on a routine basis. How many times can you recall yourself or a friend doing something awkward and funny then stating at least they gave someone something to talk about. Or that they would remember them from now on? It's not that they strive to do it, but we accept it, we turn every minute into a moment that we find possible.
     I'm referring to these fears in a possessive plural sense because I have them too. I worry that no one will come and ask me a question or for my opinion because it doesn't matter. I worry that no matter how many times I get gas at the same store no employee will remember my name because I am only average and routine. Or worse, no one will care enough to ask what it is. I don't think I will physically disappear, I don't believe my life won't prove meaningful if I'm not remembered when I'm gone from this world. My fear is that without these things my enjoyment of life will be gone. I need to be needed by someone, I need to be asked a question, I need to make people laugh and want to never stop hugging me when I see them for the first time in a long time. I need that feeling, because that feeling in itself, for me at least, is accomplishment.