I have a ridiculous number of few phobias. Some of them are totally obvious, like how I am pretty much deathly afraid of snakes. And by pretty much, I mean even typing out that last sentence made me have to go rock in the corner for a while. When you tell someone that you are afraid of snakes, they are usually like, “Well, duh, who isn’t afraid of snakes?”
The same cannot be said of one of my other phobias (I have a lot of them, but since this is not therapy, and I am not paying you people to listen to my innermost fears we will just focus on the one for now). I tend to prefer to focus less on thinking of it as a phobia and more on thinking of it as a totally normal, healthy appreciation for the fact that this animal could cause my heart to stop beating forever.
The frog.
Yep, your eyes did not fail you there. I said the frog.
I do not enjoy frogs in any way, shape or form. I do not enjoy them hopping anywhere near me, especially in the dark. Growing up in Texas this was a bit of problem as frogs were quite common. I learned from a very early age how to basically levitate from our car to the front door. Everyone teased me mercilessly about my fear of frogs. I did not care. I know danger when I see it.
This is all leading up to me saying that when I hear about phobias for creatures that most people tend to think nothing about, I feel sympathy for the person with the fear. Who am I to point fingers at the kid who freaks out when he sees a goldfish (the animal, not the cracker) or the grown-up who would prefer to steer clear of all species of birds (oh wait, that grown-up is me).
However, when my sister sent me this video recently of her co-worker’s son, I cried with laughter. Let’s just say that poor Matt is afraid of a rather random animal. I knew immediately that while I could totally relate to Matt’s plight, I still had to share this video with you all here. Because sometimes a phobia is actually funny.