#87: What Are You Afraid Of?

In regards to physical, non-abstract fears, I am afraid of tarantulas, taxidermy animals, earwigs, and the dark.

The fear of tarantulas stems from an old fear of spiders. I still don't like spiders but if I see one outside, I let it live after I explain to it that if I see it inside, it will die. Nine times out of ten, I can kill my own spiders now. But tarantulas, no. No. No. No. First, they're HUGE. Second, they're HAIRY. Third, they're HAIRY & HUGE. No. If I had to choose between being thrown into a pit of snakes or a pit of tarantulas, snakes all the way.

Taxidermy animals...I don't know why. They just freak me out. It's weird knowing they were once alive but now they're dead, staring at you with fake glass eyes. When I was little my mom took us kids to the Bean Museum on BYU campus, which is an entire museum filled with taxidermy animals. Yep, childhood trauma was established. Today you could beat me with a brick stick and I still won't step foot in that building.

Fear of earwigs comes from the time our basement became infested with them. My room is downstairs, fyi. They were EVERYWHERE. At night, I could hear them crawling across papers I left somewhere. Not to mention, they're like cockroaches where if you step on them, THEY STILL DON'T DIE. You basically have to grind them into a fine paste to assure they are officially dead. Eww.

And I'm afraid of the dark because of its inherent absence of light. You can't see anything in the dark. You don't know what's there. So really, anything could be there. I don't like this idea.

As for abstract fears, I'm afraid of going insane, being completely alone both physically & emotionally, and one day being a bad parent.

Love you.
Mean it.