The Dreaded Intersection

Do you see the picture of the intersection? I am afraid of that. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Over the past 6 years of living in this house, I have crossed the main intersection in our neighborhood a total of 2 times on foot, counting today. Well, 4 if you count round trip and the first pair was not even by choice.

The loud noise and the quick moving vehicles at intersections make me a nervous wreck. To make matters worse is the pedestrian crosswalk signal. I never know if those things are going to work or if I will be left standing there for days. Then, when I go to cross the street all sorts of thoughts come over me. Things such as, what if I pass out in the middle of the crosswalk? Or, what if someone doesn’t see me? Or, what if I take too long and a driver gets upset? It truly is ridiculous.

I firmly believe the reason for this is because inside, I’m still a country girl. Where I grew up it was quiet and we didn’t have the traffic like we do here in the city. I’ve realized over the years since living here, that loud noise in general, whether it be cars, people or even music, instantly makes me uneasy. So, that leads to this dreadful fear of intersections. I bet there’s a name for that. (quick intermission while I look that up) There is! It’s called agyrophobia. Now, that’s just funny. Anyway, back to the post.

Today, my son and I decided to walk to the convenience store after school to buy him a slushy. The day was beautiful, warm and a great day for taking a walk. So, we got some cash and began our stroll to the store. Because I’m a slight exercise fanatic, it was actually more of a fast paced walk. But, in either case the walk was going great until I saw it – the dreaded intersection.

Somehow I had completely forgotten that in order to reach the convenience store we would have to cross the road. I almost turned around right there, but knowing that my son would be disappointed we kept on. Soon we reached the intersection. I carefully pushed the button, hoping it would work. A red light flashed and a ding sounded, so I was fairly certain we were good to go. I noticed that I didn’t get hot during the walk, but as I stood there among all the noise and the cars racing by, I could feel the heat coming over me. After what seemed like ages (probably 1 minute) the walking guy finally popped up and we made our way across. Success!

With a sigh of relief we walked into the store where my son got his multi-flavor slushy, along with a math lesson. After all, we couldn’t pass up a learning opportunity while we were there. Then we made our return trip, which went well also. All in all it was a good walk. My son got his slushy, we got in a little workout and I’m overcoming my fear one intersection at time.

After successfully overcoming “portapottyaphobia”, arachnophobia and now agyrophobia, I wonder what’s next on the list.

Do you have any strange fears?