Practice Essay 4 - TOEFL iBT Writing (part 1) We all have experienced fear in our lives since it is a natural emotion, a reaction to a threat or a potential danger. Sometimes the threats and dangers can be irrational, such as spiders or dark spaces. In my case, I was afraid of speaking in public when I was a teenager. Nevertheless, I had to overcome my fear because I had assessed activities in high school. It wasn’t easy at the beginning, but I will explain in the following two paragraphs how I finally overcame my fear of speaking in public. First, I started by writing down the worst thing that could happen if I made a mistake in front of classmates. It didn’t seem to be a good way of confronting fear, though. I started thinking about my classmates making fun of me because I couldn’t speak well in my presentation. However, after two weeks, this exercise helped me to realize that making mistakes wasn’t the end of the world, but a great way of learning. For instance, while reading about insecurities I found an interesting story about a woman who was constantly afraid of failure. As a result, she ended up trapped in a circle which led her to lose really good opportunities. Moved for her desire to change she started writing a diary and thanks to that she found out that failure wasn’t something to be afraid of. This example and my experience demonstrate that writing can be a great way of changing our mindsets. I would appreciate any corrections.