Things of which I am afraid

Sorry about the title, I didn’t feel like ending with a preposition.
What will the tertiary institutions think?

Today I was going for a walk ‘round the ol’ neighbourhood and there was this butterfly, and I was like, yeah, that’s right, I used to be scared of those things.

So here are some things I have a mild fear of.

Butterflies
When I was about 13 I was walking my dog down an alley. It was getting close to dusk and there was a storm on the horizon, so I was a bit on edge. All of a sudden this giant butterfly flutters up to my face, and then bit me and I started running and screaming and the butterfly was chasing me. Max thought we were playing and he was barking and bouncing along and I was screaming and crying. There was a quite miscommunication between us that day.

Bridges
When I was younger my brother used to tell me that if you step on certain parts of a bridge you would fall through to the ground below, like the solidity of the ground is an illusion. So foot bridges freak me out. But road bridges can be equally scary. My dad used to tell me stories about how the Scrivener Dam Bridge on Lady Denman Drive is going to collapse and you could be swept away by the torrents. Lady Denman Drive is kinda creepy and I often feel like the bridge is going to disappear in the fog and I'll drive off into nothingness.

Underpasses
I avoid underpasses where I can. When I was in primary school I used to have to go under this underpass and it smelt bad and I was always scared that the cars above were going to fall through and land on me. Underpasses just seem unnatural to me. They’re all concrete and I feel like there’s going to be a troll just waiting to murder me. I know, as if a troll would care about my trivial existence. Still, trolls are jerks. I wouldn't put it past them to just murder me for no reason.

Mushroom rings
When I was 7 I was obsessed with fairies. I wanted to be one so much, I used to spend hours out in the garden looking for them so they would be, “Hey Samantha, join our fairy posse,” and I would finally be accepted by someone. I also spent a lot of my childhood playing with dolls. Anyway, mum gave me this book about fairies and it had a section on fairy rings. It had a story about a man who accidentally stepped in a fairy ring without having someone to pull him back, and he had to dance until he died of old age. I also once read this creepy story called The Song and Dance Man and he played a fiddle and everyone was compelled to dance and people were dancing on their broken feet and it was pretty freaky. I recommend you read it. You can find it here

The dark
I watched Paranormal Activity recently and since then I have been kind of scared to walk around my house at night. The first time I watched it I had my friend Tom over and we were like “cool” and then it was time to take him home and to get to his house I had to take Lady Denman Drive in the dark. We kept joking that there was a demon in the car, but it actually did kind of freak me out. Then I had to drive back home by myself. It was scary. These days when I leave my room at night to go downstairs I turn on all the lights as I go. I also run up the stairs so the darkness behind me can’t catch up. I have always jumped over the shadow cast by my bed to get to my bed.

Mirrors in the dark
I once read that evil spirits live in mirrors, and they can only come out if you look at them in the dark. I have full-length mirrors in my room at my parents’ house; it’s really hard trying to get to sleep there sometimes.

Drive thrus
I have a fear of making the wrong decision. Drive thrus multiply this fear exponentially because I have to make a decision quickly without really knowing my options. It’s not so much a fear as it is just something that freaks me out. But it does freak me out. I get fumbly and awkward when I have to do the drive thru thing.

Thinking about the universe
I get trapped in an infinity loop in my mind. I do what I can to not think about how big the universe is. It’s not that I feel insignificant; I’m okay with my unimportance, I just can’t imagine the universe without it suddenly turning to white and then I get frustrated because I’m supposed to be thinking of something endless and at some point it has to end and then I feel like I’ve failed at thinking.

Now I’m thinking about the universe.

Now I’m thinking about whiteness.

Great.