By the time this newspaper is published, the class of 2024 will have five days left on campus. Two weeks after this publication, the San Diego Unified School District will release their students for the summer. Isn’t it funny how time flies and we still manage to find ways to be shocked by it?

   As per Very Well Mind, “Dreading the future, or more commonly known as anticipatory fear, is quite common… People struggle with anticipatory fear when they worry about the outcome of a future event they have never experienced before” (verywellmind.com). Where does the dreadful feeling originate? The article suggests the brain is trying to avoid previous negative experiences, or is trying to proactively protect against an unidentified danger.

   Interestingly, the fear of the future has been connected to a specific part of the brain. According to the American Psychological Association, “People who struggle to cope with uncertainty or the ambiguity of potential future threats may have an unusually large striatum, an area of the brain already associated with general anxiety disorder….” In comparing the MRI scans of the brains of participants alongside their surveyed tolerance of uncertainty, they noticed, “…the volume of the striatum was significantly associated with intolerance of uncertainty” (apa.org). The striatum is an area that gathers information for the basal ganglia, a structure in the middle of our brains that mediates a variety of functions, one being cognition.

   This anxiety doesn’t have to follow us for the rest of our lives. Psychotherapist Jenny Maenpaa explained one way to tackle burdening worries is to, “Bring your scary thoughts into the light by asking yourself questions about them” (cnbc.com). What danger follows summer vacation? How much of this anxiety is the brain trying to fight the tide of time, and how much of it is reality? Another method shared by Meanpaa includes focusing on what factors that can actually be controlled, such as maximizing the time left in school alongside friends.

   One way to help work through these questions is through behavioral therapy. Therapists can help guide us through answering these questions and coming to realizations.

   It truly was an honor to have this space on The Commander. We are incredibly complex, and that complexity is the result of our elaborate minds. This small, ugly blob of flesh (the brain) is entirely in charge of how we experience the world. As we uncover more about our most important organ, we demystify who we are as a whole.