Day 2

Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears

1. Fear number 1: As I mentioned previously (see yesterday's post, number 2), I am deathly afraid of stairs.  And yes, that is a legitimate fear!  Stairs are scary.  Seriously, what's the scariest part of a house?  Stairs that either go down to a dark basement, or go up to a creaky attic.  In horror movies, stairs inevitably lead to bad things.  In real life, I am super clumsy, and I have hurt myself way too many times on stairs to feel remotely comfortable climbing them.  Also, oddly enough, I'm more scared going down stairs than I am going up stairs.  When I climb stairs--especially if the stairs are really narrow, or they're metal, or they're hanging above open spaces (and yes, I have been on stairs that hang over open spaces)--my heart starts racing, my stomach turns into an Olympic gymnast, and sometimes I even start to shake a little.  It's weird.  Just go with it.
2. Fear number 2: Rats.  There's not much more to say about that.  I remember the first time I saw a rat.  It was in Germany.  We were wondering around at night, just seeing the city (I think we were in Munich), when all of a sudden we stumbled across a fat, white, rat.  Luckily, it was dead, but I think that first experience kind of scarred me.  The next experience I had with rats was in India, and let me just tell you that the rats in India are absolutely huge and disgusting and scary.  Having one run across your semi-bare feet (I was wearing flip-flops) is an awful, awful experience.  Having one live in your house, slowly decaying under your mother's bathroom because it ate ALL of the rat poison is an even worse experience.  I was literally terrified to sleep for days after we found the rat in our house.  Now, even mice scare me a little bit.  I'm ok with pet mice and rats (although I think it's creepy), as long as they don't come near me.
3. Fear number 3: My third fear is that I will someday die in a fiery car crash.  I have no idea where this fear came from, but I panic just a little any time a car come near me too fast on the freeway.  I'm more comfortable in my little car now than I was when I first started driving (my parents had to beg me to get my driver's licence), but it still makes me nervous.