Thanks @ultralord! It is crazy, isn't it? We lived together for a few years before that, and we started dating when I had just turned 18 and moved away from home. He was 8 years older, and I had no idea what I was doing. I was devastated when it ended, but the experience forced me to figure out who I was as an individual, and I learned so much from it!
Good questions! The night terrors actually started a few years before I started getting into horror and creepy stuff. I don't think they're related— I had several sleep studies done when the night terrors started happening, and the doctors basically said that I have an overactive brain at night. That can manifest itself in different ways, and night terrors is one of those. I don't have a single memory of anything scary happening during a night terror. In fact, I don't ever remember anything from them except the aftermath. I've given myself a black eye before, and I've definitely freaked out some exes and friends. And I wake up sore and exhausted. I should probably write a new post about some of this stuff!
I remember the exact moment I realized I could get into the horror genre. I was so terrified of horror movies, haunted houses, everything like that until I forced myself to watch a horror movie with my boyfriend and a couple of friends at the time. I think there was a jump scare or something, and I screamed—but then I realized I was smiling afterwards. I was so confused, but delighted. I kept asking my friends what was going on! "That's the adrenaline," they told me. I also think my rising interest in horror had a lot to do with my evolving mindset. As I mentioned, I grew up southern baptist. I don't think that helped with my fear. As I got older, I realized I don't have to live in fear of everything. It's liberating!
As far as the wasp thing goes, I'm at a total loss. I don't recall every being stung by anything, and I have a high pain tolerance. I don't mind needles at all, I seek out places to go donate plasma and give blood. And I have tattoos and piercings, so who knows. I love nature and I don't have a problem with spiders or most other critters. It's just a weird anxiety of mine. I'm working on it!
Yes, tattoos—I tried to find a picture of all of us showing them together, but that's difficult to do because we all got them in different spots. I got mine on my forearm (second tattoo), my sister got hers on her foot (her first, after 3 kids!), and my brother got his on his upper arm inside of an Arkansas tattoo he already had (he has a bunch). I know the arrows are a little cliché, but I was happy to get anything the three of us could agree on. We are all very different people in very different stages of life, so it was super cool to me that we were able to land on something. The arrows represent the three of us coming from the same place but moving in different directions. We're all different, but we'll always be connected. My mom actually drew them for us, so that was an awesome bonus. And yes we got them together! This is the best I can do for now:
