Beginning

I am afraid.

I know such a blanket statement is often met with raised eyebrows and knowing looks, especially those who believe they have lived through the tests of time and can now relax knowingly in their armchair of old age, safely, but smugly amused at the trivial concerns of a misguided youth. Even you are a little skeptical. Though of course you are a concerned one, which is why you've begun to read this in the first place. However comforting your presence may be to me, it still does not change the simple fact that

I. Am. Afraid.