Ever since I was a little girl I have been scared of thunderstorms. The sound makes me very alert and I can’t sleep. The reason why I’m so scared is because of the experiences I’ve had as a child. I know many people who find thunderstorms relaxing. I personally just hate thunder. When it just rains I’m perfectly fine, but when the wind starts blowing stronger and the thunder grows louder that is when I start to panic. I have to have the windows sealed shut and covered all the way so I do not see a single thing. I’d rather not know what is happening and just wait until it is all over. I will never forget the first time I experienced the worst thunderstorm of my life. I was about nine years old at my old house. The day started out as just a regular summer day. The sun was shining and extremely humid outside. (152) My aunt wanted to go for ice cream so we went to coldstone together and had a great time. After that we went to the park and took a soccer ball to kick around. We then became bored of that and swung on the swings. She pushed me first and then I attempted to push her. It didn’t go too well considering the fact that she was way more heavier than I was, but I still had fun trying. We continued to find things to do around the park and had a blast. My aunt then looked up at the sky and realized it was darker than before and predicted it was going to rain so we started to head home. When we got home my mom was making spaghetti for dinner so we washed up and waited until it was ready. As we waited, I heard the wind outside growing louder and louder. I immediately started to worry and sat eating dinner in fear. Next thing I know my mom and my aunt started to panic. Rain started to fall now and thunder came with it. I started shaking because of how scared I became. (353)

My aunt started to panic with me and so did my mom. It was just the three of us always and we didn’t know what to do. Then my aunt got a call. It was our neighbor who lives across the street. We were good friends with her and her family so she wanted to make sure we were ok. We explained that we were extremely scared and that we were trying to stay away from the windows. Our neighbor was worried so she insisted we quickly run outside and come to her house so we can all be safe in her basement. We lived in a one story home so we had no basement to go to. We told her that was a crazy idea, but then we all already that it would be better than to stay in this home with all of our windows and them possibly shattering. This storm felt as if it was a tornado and we didn’t want to take a risk and become injured so we told our neighbor we would be their soon and that she would stay by the door to open it quickly. We gathered our things, put on our shoes, and began to approach the door. We turned off all the lights and next thing I knew we were out the door and running as fast as we could. Thankfully our neighbor wasn’t far. We made it to the door and she let us in. My mom and aunt tried to cover me as much as possible while we were outside, but it wasn’t enough. I have never been so soaking wet in my life. Our neighbor gave us some towels and we headed to the basement the whole family was down their, her husband, her son, and her daughter who is a really good friend of mine. She was excited to see me and hugged me tight. She is four years older than me, but she doesn’t care. She saw how worried I was and helped me calm down by playing our all time favorite video game, Just dance on the Wii. Surprisingly the TV downstairs worked so that calmed me down. (714) We were having a lot of fun, but my family and hers were still freaking out. We eventually were getting tired so we slept over since the storm wouldn’t stop. The next morning we thanked them for everything and headed back home. When we reached the front door we noticed our door that goes in front of the actually front door flew off and was on our grass. We couldn’t believe it, but we went straight to the store to buy a new door and installed it the same day. Now when there is a thunderstorm I still am slightly scared but I don’t freak out as much as I used to. My anxiety has died down over the years and I’m happy I am slowly overcoming my fear as the years go by. I’m proud of myself and I won’t stop trying to completely overcome this fear.