October 2026 "Scary Spiders" Bryce Cornett

Growing up, I remember my mom always warning my sister and me about Black Widows. She made it out that they were under every dark spot in my backyard. I was made to believe that they were out to get my sister and me and that they wanted to come and attack us. Coupled with their inhuman-like appearance and eight legs, this led to me developing a legit fear of spiders. I would tell people at my elementary school, “Yeah, I'm afraid of spiders,” and I always felt a little proud of it, since I had something to say I was scared of, like everyone else. The more I said it, and the more I talked about it, the more I believed it as some permanent fact of life. Any time I would find a spider in my room or somewhere in the house, the protocol was to kill it, because it was dangerous and could bite, or whatever.

As I grew older and learned more about the world, I came to realize that spiders usually only bite when they feel threatened. Most spider bites happen when people accidentally grab something or put their hand somewhere where a spider is lying. If you put a 1,000 spiders in a room, and a chair in the middle with you in it, they are not going to work together to put you in a web and eat you. If I get bitten by a spider, I assume it was either my fault or an accident; and if I find one in my house, I remove it with a cup or something. Ultimately, this fear derived from ignorance and stuff told to me by my mom.

How many of your fears are not as scary as they seem? Which of your fears can you control? After doing some general research, the general consensus is that fears are difficult to label as controllable or uncontrollable, and it heavily depends on the individual. Fear and ignorance have led to so much confusion and cruelty throughout history. The world would be a better place if everybody questioned their own fears and really decided on whether or not things were as scary as they seem.

Things or ideas can sound very scary at first before you actually do research into the subject. For example, take skydiving: at first it sounds horrifying; What do you mean I'm jumping out of a plane with a parachute? What if the parachute breaks? What if? What if? What if? According to the United States Parachute Association, tandem skydiving fatalities are listed as about 1 in 500,000. For reference, according to the National Safety Council, car-related fatalities are listed as having around an estimated 1 in 93 chance of dying in a car crash over your lifetime. Most of us drive cars every day. We live in a dangerous world, and you should not let fears that are controllable stop you from doing things you want to do. I intentionally/ unintentionally grew a fear of my backyard and spiders from fear and ignorance. Had I known the true nature of spiders or the situation, that fear never would have been there. Spiders are really cool creatures, and I love them now and enjoy watching them.

Question things you label as ‘fears’ and identify their origins. Ignorance and fear have been weaponized time and time again throughout history. How many of your fears are self-made or born from stereotypes, and how many of your fears are stopping you from doing something you really want to do?