What Scares You?

CLOCK PHOTO/JACK ROBERTS

Fears are not uncommon. Every person develops them through different life events that occur and the experiences through which they go. Some fears seem to develop from thin air, and the person with that fear can’t place where exactly it started, or even why for that matter. 

Some fears prove to be much more normal and widely agreed upon than others. Sophomore marketing major, Ryan Wimble said, “Heights, dark, buried alive, the normal things,” are what he is afraid of. Fears that are considered normal don’t necessarily have an origin and they can start at random points in one’s life.

Zoe Kay, a freshman communications major, said that she fears the normal stuff too. Kay also has an extreme dislike-bordering-phobia of cotton balls. When asked why this was, she said, “The texture freaks me out!” This proves to be quite a unique fear.

Another freshman communications major, Megan Driscoll, has the common fears of spiders and bugs. Unlike other people who have developed a fear for the freaky arachnids, Driscoll has a pretty legitimate reason for being afraid of the creatures. These bugs, who are the symbol of Halloween and all things spooky, don’t need another reason to be scary outside of their looks. Unfortunately for Driscoll, when she was younger, she went through the trauma of getting a spider bite. She said, “I was bitten by a spider and got a huge infection throughout my entire body.” That is reason enough to make anyone hate insects. It also is a reminder for why those pesky little bugs should be avoided at all costs.

Some fears seem completely absurd, and these fears are usually the ones triggered by life events. Sophomore, double-major in computer science and business, Katherine Stilling, has some pretty wild fears. Those fears are of stickers and ladybugs. Most people probably think that it is impossible; however, there are good reasons for her fears. 

When asked how these fears began, Stilling said, “My brother told me horror stories back when I was five of a girl who annoyed her brother, so he covered her in stickers when she was asleep, and then she inhaled one and suffocated and died.” Having that image in one’s head would definitely lead to developing uneasiness or fear of those childhood favorites. Stilling said, “Then he told me of a girl who was attacked by a swarm of ladybugs when she was asleep and suffocated on them and died.” The more she said, the more evident it became that her brother can take the responsibility for causing her fears.

Each person, though they may have some of the same fears, has their own reasoning for their distaste of something. It may be funny to laugh about but it is important to also think of how no one would want their fears to be taunted in their face. Fears are fears, whether normal or absurd.