My Childhood Tragedy

I recently read a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that both touched and saddened me with its truthfulness. It said, “Fear defeats more people than any one thing in the world.” It reminded me of a specific event in my childhood that permanently changed my view of the world. It was the day before Labor Day, September 2nd, 2001. My grandparents had come home that night from playing cards with their friends to find out that someone had broken into their home. The burglars were still in the house when my grandparents arrived home, but quickly fled when they heard my grandparents enter the house. They left the same way they came in, through the bathroom window. From that day on, I dreaded the nights when my parents wanted to go out, because I was terrified of returning home and finding someone in our house. I was afraid of almost every stranger that I passed in the grocery store or at the playground. Over time, I felt myself gradually leaving behind the wonderful, ignorant days of my childhood. I felt myself outgrowing the innocence of my youth.  It wasn’t the break- in itself that caused this change in me, but the sudden realization that there is a lot of evil in the world, and that evil can touch my family too.