Creepy Crawly

I have this insanely intense fear of spiders. I can't even look at a picture of spiders without getting completely creeped out. Sometimes I am forced to "deal" with it. Example, I teach English at BYU's English Language Center. People who are not native English speakers go there to learn English for their job or to enter a university. Last semester, one of the classes I taught was a reading class, and one of the books that we read was Charlotte's Web. I was ok with most of the pictures in the book because they were not so realistic. However, along with the book the students needed to do an expository reading. The one they happened to have available here was an educational magazine on spiders. When I first got it at the beginning of the semester I put it face-down in a plastic bag underneath all of the other magazines and books. The time drew near for us to read the magazine, but I couldn't touch it, open it, or even look at it. I asked a friend of mine if she would be willing to cover up the pictures for me with post-it notes. She said she would, but I kept forgetting to take it home. The time arrived when I needed to make a study guide for it and I hadn't had the pictured covered. I had to do it on my own. I took the face-down magazine out of the bag and placed it on the desk in my office. I put my fingers on the very corner of the magazine, closed my eyes, turned it over, and stepped several feet back. I opened my eyes, freaked out, and threw a piece of paper over it. I used a little tape and some post-it notes to fully cover the picture. I could barely force my hands to do it. It was as if I thought the spiders would jump out at me and grab me. Once it was fully covered I put my fingers on the corner, closed my eyes, flipped it open, and stood several feet away. I opened my eyes and freaked out again at the next ginormous pictures of spiders. But this time I had books in my hand and I threw the books onto the table to cover the pictures. As I very slowly removed the books I would cover the area with a piece of paper. I had to repeat this process over and over again until I had covered all of the pictures. It took around 45 minutes. So, really, just picture me standing in my office, feet away from the desk, stiff, scared, covered in goosebumps, teeth clenched, throwing books on top of a magazine. Who does that? I'm sure it was actually quite a site to behold. I was then able to read through it with few complications and create a study guide.

Then, the time came to discuss the magazine and study guide in class. I told my students of my fear of spiders and showed them my copy. They were quite amused. We started to go through the the magazine and check their answers on the study guides. One thing that I had failed to think of was that their copies would not be covered. To read certain sections some would lift their copies and I would get a full view of the cover and get chills all over my body. I told them to keep their copies down so I wouldn't see the horrifying pictures. Then, I had to collect the study guides. I made them cover their copies so I wouldn't see the pictures as I passed by. I still saw a few and tightened up and got goosebumps.

Now, taking the post-it notes and paper off so I could return it in the same condition I got it in was easy. I shoved the magazine in a plastic bag, tied it tight, and took it home, and had my roommate do it. She was nice enough to double bag it for me when she was done.

What I find really odd though is that I have this incredible fear and yet one of my favorite songs is "Boris the Spider" by The Who. Go figure. And just so you know, I'm not including a picture for obvious reasons.