Death is only the beginig

I remember this quote from the Mummy,when Imhotep went back to the underworld, and as he drawned he said: " DEATH IS ONLY THE BEGINING".

When we die, our life continue as spirits, when we die is like graduation from this lifetime. I used to be afraid of death, but I find myself embracing it, it migHt sound crazy, but sometimes I look forward to it..lol, I want to know how much has my soul progress, how much did I learn and what's going to be my next task? I want to know how can I become more helpful to humanity, and I hope I can remember, but I want to come back as a Spiritual Teacher, I want to come back knowing what I've learned from this lifetime and add to it more . See? it works like school, you finish high school and go to college, from there to university, then some go for their Masters or Doctorate, etc, some souls crave knowledge, and some don't.

Death is just the beggining of a new phase in our spiritual growth...But if that's the case, how come when we find ourselves in life or death situations we panic and are afraid to die? I experience that 2 days ago after the earthquake. I was ready to take a shower when I felt the tremble, I was very afraid. So is kind of confusing to me, why if some of us embrace death, are we afraid of dying? isn't that contradictory?