Have you ever been a part of something you didn’t like doing or have the fear of doing something? Read about the personal stories of a few AHS teachers and what caused their life long fears.

English teacher Emma Walker is afraid of flying on airplanes and said, “Why do I do it?”  

Although Walker has flown more than five times,including her first time when she went by herself to Baltimore for a teachers’ convention.  she said she is still scared out of her mind.

So far she has not had any scary situation while on an airplane, but she said, “Skydiving is not for me.” Two years ago student support

Paraeducator Sue Petersen went to Jamaica for a vacation. She thought she could go on a caving tour. She was with her husband and  within a few moments there were “50 to 100” bats flying around her–but it felt like “thousands,” she said.

The reason Petersen is scared of bats is the “swooping sound.” The noise “really spiked my anxiety to the max.” Petersen managed to survive. “In the end I was able to get out,” she said.

Like Petersen, Ag teacher Eric Miller is not a fan of a specific animal. When younger Miller was walking through a field with his grandmother barefoot and stepped on a bullhead snake. He felt the snake “constrict” and it bit him all in the matter of seconds.  His first reaction was what just happened and his grandmother told him “I started crying” he said.

Miller said, “If there was a snake in my way I would try to avoid it as much as possible and keep my distance.”  

Miller will never forget the moment when he was bitten by a bullhead snake.

Substitute teacher Larry Mitchell was 45 years old skiing down a slope in Breckenridge, Colo., when he came upon an icy turn.

“If you didn’t make the turn you were going over the slope,” Mitchell said, recounting this fearful moment. The slope had clear ice from top to bottom and he would not do it again.

One teacher had a not-so-scary story, but rather a what-did-I-just-do moment. P.E. teacher Eric Waldstein jumped off a barn when he was younger. “I was up there and when I got half way up I jumped,” Waldstein said. “I was young and dumb and trying to show off for my friends.” Waldstein had second thoughts after he jumped off and was glad that he didn’t get greatly injured.  

Fears are not built but are put into your head by your experiences.