Have you ever laid in bed, all snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug as your fan cools your tired face and your eyes drop with slumber. You are about to go to the land of dreams when you hear a hss—or you think you hear a hissing sound but it’s papers rusting in the corner of your room—a shiver goes down your spine as you imagine a snake coiling around your leg. You kick your blanket off your bed and sit there for the remaining time of the night unable to sleep. You can’t help but imagine a snake slithering around you as if it is taunting you. You lay awake with a pencil in hand, just in case the snake wants to pick a fight. Has this ever happened to you? No? Consider yourself lucky, for I live with this exact scenario happening more times than I can remember.
Many lay in bed imagining what their future will look like or how utterly single they are, but I lay in bed suited for a battle with my ophidiophobia (extreme fear of snakes). With a pencil in my hand, I will somehow defeat those disgusting creatures. Why am I scared of these cursed animals? Well, because they are disgusting, venomous, fanged, people killing big worms. The only thing they are good at is killing some rodents and venomizing living things. I have feared these foul creatures ever since I started learning how to walk. How this fear started is unknown to me, but how this fear tagged teamed with my imagination to make my life is outrageously cruel. I remember burning my cousin’s pink snake plushie (she is crazy for having that thing in the first place) because I thought it would turn into a real snake and would eat me alive. When I was at Indianola, I thought I saw a snake hiding in that lustrous green grass. Without thinking, I pushed a girl out of my way, and fully sprinted towards the playground, where I resided for the rest of recess. A yard duty aid told me that the “snake” ended up being a jump rope…or was it?
I have many tales of my battles with snakes, but the one that hunts me every day is the one many people share. The fear that a snake will come out the toilet when we are using it and bite you or go where the sun doesn’t shine. I have talked to many and wonder how we come to envision this horrific scenario? I have the answer. SNAKES ARE LITTLE DEMONS. These wicked, vile serpents can slither their pretty-little rattling butts on ground, up walls, on the ceiling, through any sized holes, any landscape, and can slither on water. ON WATER! They are the final boss battle of life. How are you even going to stop them? They can seamlessly slither through anything you throw, can hide in any environment, can squeeze you ‘till you can’t breathe, and then rattle their tails as boss battle music plays. I never understood why people kept them as pets, they are killer animals! One bite or one mess up and you are a dead man. They can first eat you alive, then go after your family, and the next thing you know, the neighborhood is gone. These pets of yours can squeeze you in their sleep and then what will you do? Have your ghost fight him? You can’t beat them. If you even manage to hurt one, they can rattle their tales and more will come to its aid.YOU WILL NEVER WIN!
My ophidiophobia has made experiencing things harder for me. Remember Slither.io? It took me 2 months to play that game without shaking whenever I saw those snakes that increasingly grew bigger. When we went to the Fresno Zoo, I was the reason some students were not about to see the reptile exhibit. I was too afraid to even step in, I would freeze at the entrance. To let others enjoy it, I would hide my face into someone’s body as we walked through the exhibit, but even then the hissing and rattling would make me feel and envision those sickening creatures. If someone has a snake skin textile with them, I have to ask them to cover it up, for just seeing it will make me uneasy the whole time. When at Walmart, my brother sometimes grabs a rubber snake and runs after me as I scream and people think I am crazy, but I don’t care, I have to save my head. Or if I am watching a movie and a snake is in a scene, a cold sweat takes over my body and I curl up into a ball or jump out my seat in fear a snake is under or behind me.
To be frank, I am sure this fear is hereditary. My mom has ophidiophobia as well. She hates snakes as much as I do. When you talk about them to her she shivers at the thought and sight of them. No one else in my family has this problem besides us. However, my fear is extremely worse, compared to hers. As you have read, my imaginative mind does not help my battle with these evil creatures. Just how the sound of something can have me on the edge of my bed ready to fight these never to be seen snakes. Or how the thought of them makes me jump. When we find a way to mass murder these creatures of terror, I want to be the first one to click the button. Until then, my pencil and I will be ready for battle for any snake that wants to disturb my sleep. (Shivers went up my spine as I wrote this. ENJOY!)
