As Halloween approaches, darkness hangs around during the month of October. The scary critters come around and people jump at the sudden sounds around the corner. Halloween excites people with the love of everything spooky and creepy. Though fears exist out there that people find totally normal, fears exist where people find totally irrational. Those irrational fears help play a part in shaping someone to who they become, because those fears seemed normal for them. For the students and teachers at DHS, individual fears and phobias become more amplified. 

“I’m scared of heights because it’s related to danger and [as] for the Mickey Mouse voice,” sophomore Anna Renaud said. “I have no clue.”

During a person’s childhood, Mickey Mouse pops up everywhere from commercials to even his own section reserved in the Disney store. One day for Renaud though, she heard his voice and started crying. Without a clue as to why she feared his voice, she began questioning what went wrong with her. As a kid she enjoyed watching Mickey Mouse, but now he haunts her. 

“I am afraid of mayonnaise,” English teacher Amber Kennedy said.

When someone orders a sandwich from a restaurant or makes one at home, some people consider putting mayonnaise on it, but not Kennedy. As a child, she avoided the condiment like the plague, though she never tried it. In her home, her kids never eat anything with mayonnaise in it. At restaurants, she double checks everything to assure herself that no mayonnaise makes its way into her food. It comforts her knowing that she lowers the risk of eating or touching mayonnaise. 

“I freak out when I have peanut butter stuck to the roof of my mouth, because I think it’ll get stuck there forever,” sophomore Garrett Rodgers said. 

When thinking of fears, conventional horror stories pop up; scary clowns hiding in sewer drains make people walk on the other side of the street and the dark forces people to keep a light on for fear of the unknown. When people think of fears, it usually excludes simple foods like   mayonnaise or in this case, peanut butter. Fears of certain foods affect people’s lives and though it seems unreasonable, it makes it another aspect to create someone’s personality.

“I also have a fear of the ocean or any water that is deep enough that I can’t see the bottom,” History teacher Cherie Hocevar said. “I mean, who really knows what’s in the water.”

Water is a necessary resource for a human to survive. People spend their time swimming and making memories at the beach and pool, but some people fear it. While fears exist like drowning in water, she fears the unknown that hides when she enters. She fears the murky water and what lurks around. She visits places like Florida, since the water is crystal blue and clear. Though water seems like an irrational fear to some, it scares Hocevar and many other regularly.

While some fears seem irrational to outsiders, they are quite normal to feel. Fear comes in all shapes and sizes, and are as unique as the individual themselves. 

“Fears build up someone’s personality by making them unique and interesting to at least another person,” Rodgers said.