Laura Living Kinda Dangerously

In my entire life, I have never held a snake. I have briefly touched one, but never held one. If children can do it, this old lady can.

The Fear Factor

I remember the first time that I saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as a child, and while the ripping out of the heart in the temple sacrifice scene was the most terrifying, the close second was when Indiana ended up in the room full of snakes. “I hate snakes!” If Indiana Jones could perform all of the dangerous feats that he does, and it was the snakes that scared him the most, that told me everything that I needed to know to join that club.

Living in the Lowcountry, one runs into the occasional snake, but I do remember being confronted by a water moccasin on the golf course where I worked in college. Water moccasins are known to be aggressive, and instead of running away from me like any other self-preserving snake, that devil came at me like it had nothing to lose. Thus, I said to hell with all of them. I, like Indiana Jones before me, have a fear of snakes.

What’s the worst that could happen?

I could get bitten and die in the time it takes two steps away from it? It could wrap around my neck, and choke me, unhinge its jaws, and swallow my body whole? (I really feel like the catastrophic answer to this question should be obvious in all of my blog posts.)

Anxiety Level

Uuuummm, I think a 7. I volunteered to hold this snake, so it should not have been a 10.

Experience

One of my very favorite teachers at my school has a classroom milk snake named Ira, and since all of her students seem to love him, I thought this would be the perfect animal with which to face this fear.

So… my goal was to hold the snake for 5 minutes, and I did it without dying!!!! I held that sweet, docile little snake as he slowly slithered up my arm. It wasn’t slimy, but dry and muscular. My new friend Ira was just chilling out being a snake. He didn’t bite or eat me, and for 7 minutes and 42 second, a room full of high school students saw me doing something brave.

Analysis

After initially not breathing, my anxiety went down to a 2. I actually found it somewhat . . . enjoyable? What have I been so scared of? Now, I assure you all that I will not become the next snake charmer or pet snake owner, but I recognize now that maybe fearing all snakes may have been unfair to many members of an entire species.

I have to tell you that I felt brave today, and I am really proud of myself! I might even do this again! Yay Laura!!

Extra realization

I realized that my body anxiety number and my head anxiety number are not in synch at all. In this experience, the body anxiety was super high—like a 10–while the head anxiety was about half of that. Will focusing more the head anxiety be the key to conquering anxiety? I am open to exploring this.