Everyone has fears. Heights, spiders, speaking in public… For me, nothing scares me more than the creepy, slithery creatures on the planet called snakes. Just saying the name makes me churn. The way their bodies curl and slink when they move… I can’t even handle it. I see one, doesn’t matter what kind, poisonous or not, and my scream can be heard down the street.

Over the years, I have had some encounters with snakes. Some brought on completely by others. Let’s start at the beginning...

When I was in fifth grade, our school went on a field trip to Pathfinders. While there, one of the days we went to a cabin in the mountain where they had reptiles. At one point, they passed around a turtle and then a Rosie Boa snake. Back then, my fear was not set completely. Though I would not hold it, I did touch it. Why? I do not know.

Later in life, after my fear was truly set in concrete, I went into my seventh grade science class. The first thing I noticed was, yes you guessed it, two stupid, ugly snakes in cages, one on top of the other at the back of the classroom. I strategically placed myself in the seat farthest away from the sickly creatures. To my luck however, my teacher already had a seating chart made and firmly called out my name to sit in the desk directly in front of the creepy crawlers. And how long did I have to sit in that dreadful spot? All. Year. Long. Not once did we switch seats. But obviously I’ve moved on from that sore spot in my life.

Each summer my family goes to Idaho where my dad grew up. Our house backs right up next to the river, which makes for easy and convenient water access. One activity we like doing is kayaking on the river. On one particular occasion, I entered the kayak with two of my older brothers. After an enjoyable ride, we pulled up at the water’s edge. As we neared, my oldest brother exclaimed excitedly, “Look what I found!” I turned around to see a certain type of reptile swimming in the water next to us. He promptly moved towards picking up the snake with his paddle. This is when I lost it. I jumped up, almost tipping the kayak and leaped off onto the rocks, and ran into the house. I didn’t talk to my brother the rest of the day.

One final event of terror in my life happened in my own backyard. I walked up to my back door and noticed the door mat was not laying straight, so with my foot, thankfully, I pulled the mat back into position only to reveal a black and yellow serpent curled up underneath. I screamed and my German Shepherd dog ran over and immediately started barking. By that time, I was already running to the other door and raced inside. My mom, brother, and dog took care of the beast and honestly I don’t know how this story ended, being that I was inside calming down. All I know is that it’s not there anymore, and that’s how I like it.

I don’t know about you, but for me, I’m deathly terrified of snakes of all sorts. These few encounters are all I want to face in life. I don’t want to meet up with these demons anytime again.