(It might be funny to look at my picture before reading…)
When I was younger, bugs used to terrify me, and that isn’t an understatement. I’m talking jump on a chair, grab onto mom, scream for help type of terrify. If I was in a cartoon, id the the character that died from being scared and had to grab their soul from flying away. Bugs were my worst enemy! Cockroaches, beetles, worms, practically any bug besides the “pretty” ones which I had a common bias to, all scared me! But there’s one tiny creature that would push my fear over the top.
Spiders.
A fun fact about me, I used to go to summer camp when I was 7 years old. And no it wasn’t for fun, and I wasn’t because I was a bad little kid. It was because I had zero social skills and my mom wanted me to develop some. This camp was held at Peña Adobe and we would hike and fish in a tiny pond and enjoy nature activities in general. And being in nature always has a be consequence, coming in contact with bugs.
We were going on our hike one day. This was definitely one of the longer ones, as the time we would be out was estimated at 1.5-2 hours. (Yes, we didn’t walk fast since so many of us were small, but that’s besides the point!) Everything was going well, the usual scenery around us and conversation overheard between our counselors and kids. Everything was the same. And so, as I’ve become used to this entire camp thing, I just go on, not expecting anything crazy. Well, of course, the moment I drop my guard, little ol’ Blu falls. Great. I’m already panicking enough as I didn’t want to get too dirty or scraped, and the moment I turn my toward the inside of the trail, there she is.
A huge, fat, scary, FAST, spider. I’m talking mammoth sized compared to what we usually see. Its abdomen was practically bulging from its size. Its legs were like eyelashes badly covered in mascara. It nearly glistened in the sun. It was the most hideous, scary, foul, vile, evil thing that 7 year old me could see. Frozen in fear, the only thing I could do was yelp and hyperventilate, not even screaming. I sounded like a very pitchy, untrained opera singer as I layed there so vulnerable on my side. I probably went ghost white from this awful moment.
This entire event happened in probably a span of 20-30 seconds. I remember seeing some counselors come towards me while another lead the rest of the kids on their hike (they really abandoned me to the behemoth creature huh, cowards). But everything else was silent, as if it was only me and that spider on this trail. The moment I saw that thing creep towards me, I finally let out the scream, as my counselors picked me up to help with any first aid I needed. One guy kicked the pushed near the spider and it immediately retreated back into hiding, and I was just in disbelief.
10 years later, my fear of bugs has finally subsided. I find many cute, and I even enjoy some spiders now. However, for tiny me, that wasn’t the case and that event has clearly done some damage for a while. After all, I did write about the whole thing today…
Word Count: 564
No comments:
Post a Comment