Tubing and Other Funny Fears

In high school, our youth group would take a trip to Lake Mohave to go water skiing, wake boarding, tubing, etc. every summer. Growing up in CA, there aren't a lot of lakes, so I didn't go tubing behind a boat until high school. Whoever was driving the boat that first time, made it their personal goal to go as fast as they could and get kids to fly off the tube. I did it and pretty much hated every minute of it. I knew it was a fun thing that people loved, but the whole time all I could think about was that moment when I'd have to let go and crash into the wake, lose half of my bathing suit, choke on the water... or worse, hitting a wave and getting the rope ripped out of my fingers and then crashing into the wake, etc. etc.

When I get really nervous about something, sometimes I cry. I can't help it really. I think the build up of all of the adrenaline from doing the thing that freaked me out just needs to come out some way, and my body chooses to do this by sobbing. About 90% of the times that I've been tubing, I've had to take a few minutes and cry afterward. Besides the part where I really just don't like tubing, crying afterwards for a while is a little embarrassing. So, I don't really do it anymore. I gave it a fair shot, I probably went 10 or so times. I never liked it. Still a little scared of it.

I have other funny fears, and most of them are things like tubing- I've done them, they freaked me out, and I don't really want to do them again. Here's a list of things:

1. Tubing.
2. Sledding.
3. Driving up steep hills with stop signs.
4. Riding a horse.
5. Downhill skiing.
6. Cliff jumping.
7. Big roller coasters. (I used to love them, but now that I'm older it does that thing where your stomach is in your throat and I hate that so much)

All of these things have made me cry or could. And I've done them all and didn't like them. Also, there's a pretty solid theme of "things that I feel out of control doing that I'm supposed to enjoy, but I don't." So, I get super annoyed when people try to force me into doing them, as if being forced to something that makes me feel out of control and freaked out is the way to help me. It doesn't help, it just makes me want to cry BEFORE doing the thing, instead of just afterward. But a way that does help is laughing with me, because these are ridiculous things to be afraid of.