Why Do We Fear the Unknown?

   Even as a little kid, I've been scared of the dark. But why? Darkness is just the absence of light. As I grew up, I realized that I wasn't necessarily afraid of the dark; I'm frightened of what lurks in the dark, what creeps in the shadows. I don't know what could be out there, what dangers lie in the umbrage. And although I'm more disturbed by the possibility that someone is hiding and can jump out at me, I still don't know what the darkness hides, so I'm apprehensive about venturing into it.
   And while this is only one example, why do we fear the unknown? (And don't try to deny it; on some level everyone fears the unknown.) We like knowing what's going to happen, what actual is hiding behind the corner. We take comfort in the knowledge of what's out there. Our minds like to make things fit, like to make sense out of things, always try to see the picture or make out a familiar shape. We feel uncomfortable in a situation we are unsure about, and we need to make sense out of it. And a lot of this is why it's so hard for us to make changes in our lives, especially career changes. We don't know how it'll turn out and it scares us. Taking that first jump, that leap of faith is the hardest. How will it turn out? I don't know. We find comfort in familiarity so anything that is not makes us stop and wonder. Not knowing is unsettling, unnerving.
   I think a lot of us fear death (myself included) because 1) obviously we want to still live, and 2) because we don't know what will happen to or become of us. (For the religious folks out there, you have it worked out.) In life, we have things ending all the time (projects, days, conversations) but we always know that they'll come up again in the future. The finality of death scares us. We are unsure of what happens next (or doesn't). Life is basically like a schedule: wake up, eat, go to work or school, come home, eat, sleep, and repeat. So when our schedule is in jeopardy of death- the fact that we won't have a schedule anymore, so to speak- or in jeopardy of just not being a schedule anymore, we are alarmed because we don't know what to do or how to react.
   Admittedly, I fear the unknown. I like knowing what's going to happen. I prefer to have control over my own situations or those that affect me. Unfamiliarity is uncomfortable to me- and to many others, I'm sure. And death frightens me as well. I think about what will happen. What will become of my mind? My spirit? All these questions that don't have answers shake me.
   And yet, through all of this, the unknown yields something exciting. Anticipation and the guessing can be fun. So I suppose it's all about finding a happy medium, or balancing out the excitement and fear. Because in reality, all of the future is the unknown. And we can't be scared forever, right?