Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

You may already know, I consider one of my biggest "flexes" in life to be the fact that I beat arachnophobia. I worked very hard to overcome a lifelong fear of spiders, in about 2010 or so, and now I love spiders and actually prefer Halloween decor that features them. You can read more about that in  this post . I've come a long way with it and though it may sound silly, I consider it a huge accomplishment. Overcoming any fear, no matter how big or small, is always something to be proud of. I thought it would be fun today, though, to revisit one of my funniest stories from the time when I was still very much, almost obsessively and irrationally, arachnophobic. The year was 2000. I had just turned thirteen, and I believe I was back-to-school shopping with my mother and aunt at one of the nearby malls. This mall, strangely enough, had a CVS inside of it, and from the outside, across from the Old Navy where most of my wardrobe from ages 12-14 came from, we could see that the...

 As someone who has always dealt with anxiety on some level or another, fear, in many different forms, has always been a part of my life. Some fears can be faced, and others can’t, and no matter the situation, no matter how outlandish they may seem, being afraid of something is always valid. Often times, though, I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit for the fears we overcome. So today, I’d like to talk about mine. On my most recent day off, I was scrolling through Hulu, and saw they had a movie available to watch that I’ve really been wanting to see for the past few years: Arachnophobia. I find the poster for this movie to be the most relaxing, beautiful, serene image. And I was super excited to see the spiders featured in the movie! But it wasn’t always this way.  Before about 2010, a movie that so predominantly featured spiders would have sent me into a massive panic and possibly have made me physically. At one time, I was, quite literally, the very definition of ‘ar...