What thing sends shivers down your spine? What makes you scream? What keeps you awake at night? Everyone has a fear or phobia that affects them in some way or another. There will be the traditional fears that are well-known and there will be a few...
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I'm the only 16 year old in my school that doesn't know how to swim. Our school unlike most, focuses on swimming, tennis and golf as a major sport instead of baseball or football. We have the state's largest swim teams with over forty members on each team. My best friend, Courtney is on the relay team, her sister is on the dive team and my mom is the couch for the synchronized swimming.
My one and only friend, Courtney, and my family knows why I can't swim, or let alone touch any water since I was little. Well that was before yesterday at Courtney's pool party. Her friends from school and I were there for her birthday. Her new boyfriend, Jacob tried to push me in the shallow end of the pool as a prank and I ended up on the ground screaming after throwing up on him.
Everyone there got to see me completely break down, crying and screaming about the water as I lay on the ground in a huddled mess, rocking back and forth. I was being laughed at and made fun of by everyone there, including Courtney. She eventually came over and helped me up off the ground and lead me to her poolside bathroom. As soon as I walked in, she closed the door behind me calling me a loser and that I should go home because I was embarrassing her.
I ended up calling my mom to come get me and left through the house instead of going outside to say good bye to anyone, not that anyone would care. My mom didn't say a word as she saw me shaking so bad and deathly white as I got in the car. After a few minutes in the car, she rolled down the window to let some fresh air in the car. I slunk even further into the seat to make myself as small as possible. I knew that I smelled bad to everyone else but I just didn't notice it any more.
My nose has become smell blind since I have gotten used to smelling so bad for so long. My fear of water is so bad that it takes both of my parents and my older sister to get me to take a bath. When I do, there is usually only about an inch of water in the tub and my mom or sister has to stay there to make sure that wash. I keep my hair really short so I don't have to worry about washing it and if it's raining outside I can't even get close to the door. I start gasping for air, a great pressure builds in my chest and I end up on the floor having a panic attack.
When I was in the first grade, my friend Anna, died in front of me from drinking water from the fountain. She had been laughing at something I said as she was taking a drink and the water went into her lungs. It wasn't a lot and we didn't know that it would hurt her. Later that day during lunch, she kept telling the teacher that her chest hurt and couldn't breathe. The teacher made a comment that she was talking so she could breathe just fine.
Soon after that her face started turning blue and she fell to the floor. She was rushed from the room and my mom told me that she was in heaven later that night. When I asked why it happened, she told me that she had died from water in her lungs. After that it was a fight to get me to drink anything, take baths, or learn how to swim. They wanted me to know how to swim because we had a very big and deep pool in the backyard.
My fear got so bad that my parents had to hire a renovator to come in and redesign the upstairs bedrooms so that I didn't have any windows to the backyard. Before the reno, all of the bedrooms faced the backyard with a big open space on the other side to see the foyer and living room from the hallway. It had to be done because I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and gasping for air like I was drowning.
