I am not a very easily scared person. For example, many people have told me that my room is actually haunted, and apparently there’s a ghost in there. I have always smiled and inclined my head, and well, I do have a very congenial relationship with my other worldly friend, to be very honest.
My father runs like the devil is after him the moment he sees cockroaches.
My friend is afraid of butterflies. So, once when he was irritating me, I went outside, caught a pretty blue one, and threw it at him. He ran out of the room, out of the house, leaving a hot trail behind him, and called me from a pay phone booth two blocks away, demanding to “make sure that creature from hell does not stay there”.
On the other hand, my sister’s biggest fear is failure. She hates being critiqued, and is paranoid about people critiquing her. It actively gives her nightmares, and is one of the reasons why she is severely agarophobic (yes, that’s fear of crowds, as well as open spaces). It is one of the reasons she just does not like going out of the house without a very good reason for it.
So there! Fears are of all kinds, you see.
I have my fears too. But I have to say, nothing induces more fear, or more loathing, than one eight-legged freak.
That’s right.
Spiders.
Eeek.
Sorry, just writing about them make my toes curl up.
Agree with me? Raise your hands.
You don’t agree?
Wait till you find one on your unsuspecting shoulder. I curse you with the power of Greyskull.
It is one of the reasons I don’t want to go to Cambodia. Apparently they eat fried tarantulas there.
Which means there are many many many many of them there.
Ick.
But then, I had to overcome it, I told myself. I could not let fear rule my life. I could not let myself be scared, every time I saw a millimetre long little pest running across the length of the door, or just hang around, or just look at me with an evil glint on their face and tell me that they are watching me.
So I started reading up on them. Of course, that made me even more afraid, but then, I realized a few amazing facts about spiders.
- Spiders are found everywhere except Antarctica (Which makes it an excellent place to stay)
- There are over 40,000 different species of them (Oh god, 40,000????)
- Spiders are mostly harmless to humans, except a few (like the Black Widow), which can poison people
- Spiders are not insects, they are arachnids, and so, they have eight legs, not six
So, after reading, I realized that most spiders can’t harm me, and most of those bugs which spins those long webs are females. I have to say, that made me feel marginally better.
And yes, I just looked at a spider a few minutes back, huddled in a corner of my bathroom, and I did not scream and run away.
Which I think is a definite improvement.
For those who want to overcome fear, make sure you face it today, and not wait for it. When you stop fearing it, you start winning, mostly to yourself.
Check out the Video from Mountain Dew and tell me about what scares you.
Disclaimer: This post was written in association with Indiblogger and Mountain Dew.
