7 seconds of terror

In 2012, the world witnessed a massive advancement in space exploration. With the ever evolving technologies and smarter machines, the world has not yet reached the peak of its technological advancement. Space exploration is one such field which constantly evolves its technology. The technological marvel began from a place called cape canaveral and ended with a resounding success on Aeolis Palus, a martian crater. So what is it that makes this curiosity's mission a subject to talk about? Just before touchdown to the martian lands, the spacecraft has to enter the martian atmosphere. But the problem is, it enters the planet's atmosphere at tremendous speeds. It has to be decelerated before it hits the ground. The sequence of deceleration, deployment of parachute, hovering and detachment of the rover and finally touchdown. All this happens in a specific time frame of seven minutes. The robots automatically execute these sequence of steps and it is almost confirmed that nothing will go wrong. Yet, if something goes wrong, the mission will end in a failure and it will result in the loss of billions of dollars.  This particular time-frame was termed as 'The 7 minutes of terror'.

Coming back down to earth, I experienced a similar kind of terror, except it was for seven seconds. Ever since my childhood, I had this fear of going underwater. I tried to go for swimming classes but I failed. Every time I go near a pool, I become hydrophobic. The reason of this fear is due to some childhood trauma. Walking around in the pool is alright. The thought of holding my breath underwater and wading through the water knocks the wits out of me. I am not scared of water, I am scared of drowning, scared of being consumed by water. 

Yesterday, I experienced the much labelled '7 seconds of terror'. A bunch of friends wanted to throw me into the pool, I resisted. But they all overpowered me and managed to toss me overboard. When my leg came in contact with water, my heart skipped a beat. My body kept sinking into the water and my limbs couldn't find solid ground. I was flailing, trying to grab something solid but all that came to my help was water. I swallowed a little water when I opened my mouth to scream out for help. Thankfully, my feet found the ground and I was able to stabilize myself. This was my personal 7 seconds of terror.

I am hoping to get over this long-term fear. I want to be able to swim and have fun with the others. Some fears will take time to get over. So I wait patiently for that day to come.