Facing Fears

To my readers who may not know me so well: I do NOT do well with scary things like suspenseful movies... or cockroaches. For example after being "forced" to see The Ring, for months I couldn't stand to be alone in a room with a TV. I just knew someone was going to crawl out of it. Just thought you might need to know that to be fully impressed with the following story.

So my friend Lisa found out about a corn maze in Enoree. She even found coupons online and had us over for dinner before the event. Well, I was pretty sure I had clarified with the girls (Heidi, Katie, and Lisa) that it wasn't haunted...and that I could have a personal chaperone the entire time. Half of that was right.

As we were eating dinner safely in the daylight, I asked again (for reassurance): "Now this trail isn't haunted, right?" An uncomfortable silence fell on my three friends as they all looked away. "Well, it may have some spooks." Turns out it WAS haunted. As fear settled in my heart, all appetite for my barbeque sandwich dissipated. What could I do? I had to go. There was no choice.

Upon arrival, we learned that there are 2 trails - one with no spooks and one with. Guess which one I voted for:). As a compromise, we did the no-spook trail first - it took us over an hour to complete. After getting over the eerieness of a cornfield at night, I actually started enjoying it. And then we finished.

Time for the spook trail. Well, I kept telling myself they were just kids from a local church's youth group - but my eyes told me they were monsters, witches, and serial killers with weed whackers. The part I really didn't care for was when they would walk behind you quietly until you turned around and saw them. True to their word though, my friends stood by me (or was it that I had a death grip on their sweatshirts?). I had to keep reminding myself that no one really dies in a corn maze. But do they go crazy? - I found myself wondering. The smart maze planners made the spook side only about 20 minutes instead of the hour non-spook trail. All of a sudden we were finished - alive, untouched, sane, victorious! To celebrate our near brush with death, we took a picture to forever engrain the moment in our minds. Although I do not ever plan on going on another haunted trail, I do feel stronger and braver for having faced that fear. Thanks girls, for pushing me to do what I never would have done on my own!

Note to any future maze goers: Shining a flashlight directly into a monster's eyes is very effective for making him/her leave you alone.