I was born with entomophobia, the fear of bugs. Whenever I see a spider, I would bolt towards my mom, screaming for help. My parents constantly thought I was in serious trouble. One day they sat me down and said to me, "Look, you have to overcome this fear because whenever you scream, we think you're in trouble. If we get used to you screaming all the time, we'll just ignore you and when you do get kidnapped. We won't know because we will think that you just yelped because you saw a ladybug." Since I was still a kid, I didn't listen to what they said and continued to scream at the sight of any nauseating critter.


The days of elementary school had some of the best experiences of my life. School was not difficult and people actually enjoyed going to school. When I was in third grade, class would usually start with a forty-five minute free for all. During this time, the students were to start on the daily cyclic review, but instead people just stood around and socialized. The years of childhood were relishing.


As my teacher was settling my classmates down to start on cyclic review, I had just opened my binder when a massive spider crawled across my page. This was the very first time I had to go face-to-face with a live spider. I threw up my arms, wailed, and darted to a corner in the classroom, feeling I was no match for any spider. My classmates, filled with confusion, got up and surrounded my desk. Everyone started talking at once about the spider. Someone started yelling, “It’s making a web! It’s making a web!” I could not quite understand what was going on, for I had no view of my desk anymore. Out of nowhere the mob parted and a spider unaccountably soared through the air headed in my direction. Following my natural instinct, I ran out of the classroom. Some friends came to calm me down. While I was gone, Beau killed the spider and everyone was working on cyclic review again. Everyone was finally working on cyclic review now.


I had just sat down in my seat when the web the spider had created caught my eye. With a painful expression, I looked at the web before me. I had asked Beau if he would get rid of the web for me, but he denied. I started twirling my pencil, pondering about what I should do. Not expecting anything to happen, I poked my pencil into the web and at that moment another spider squirmed out of the web. Because this spider had caught me off guard, I just stood up and let out a blood-curdling scream. The eight-legged creature had crawled up my pencil and onto my hand. I shook my hand and the spider flung to my friend Jacquelyn, who had just made fun of me for being scared. My brave friend, who thought that I’m a coward for being scared, panicked and sprinted away from the scene. Beau again came to the rescue and stomped on the spider. In the end Beau was nice enough to do me a favor and get rid of the web for me.


Last fall, Mr. Downing, my biology teacher, assigned us an insect collection that I was anxious about. After the project was due, I realized that the flying, crawling, squirming tiny living things were harmless, because I, the human, was capable in crushing them with my bare hands. If we could face the fears we have today, there is nothing in the world that can stand in our way to live our life. The reason why children have fears is because they are too young to realize that there was nothing to be afraid of in the beginning, but the reason why adults still have fears are because they still have not found the courage to face them.