Sciurophobia is defined as the fear of squirrels. I believe I do have Sciurophobia because squirrels have always been a fear of mine from a young age. A lot of people think squirrels are adorable and innocent, but I believe otherwise.

A couple of incidents have happened that have influenced me to have a fear of squirrels. One day I was going to go golfing by myself for the first time. I went to golf at the Sunkissed Meadows Golf Course in Fort Dodge. I was super excited because it was a new experience and I had never golfed by myself before. My mom dropped me off and told me to call her when I was done golfing. When she dropped me off I saw that there was no one else golfing on the golf course and I had it all to myself. I paid for my round and went to the first hole. When I walked up to the first tee box on hole one I noticed what a beautiful day it was. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and it smelt like freshly cut grass. I shoved my tee into the soft ground, stuck my ball on top of it, and teed off. I golfed all the holes up to hole five. When I got to hole five I decided to sit down to take a break and get a sip of water from my water bottle.

When I sat down on the bench I noticed a squirrel staring at me. I tried to ignore it, but it just kept staring. My solution to get the squirrel to stop staring was running as fast as I could at the squirrel. So I did just that, I ran toward the squirrel as fast as I could, but it would not move. I then gave up on trying to get the squirrel to move away from me so I walked back toward the tee box, but I noticed the squirrel was following me. Wherever I walked, the squirrel followed. I was becoming scared so I ran away from the squirrel and it continued to follow. Out of options and scared I darted to the bathroom they have in a shed off of hole five and hid in there. After a few minutes passed I slid my head slightly out of the door and scanned for the squirrel across the green fare way. The coast was clear, there was no squirrel in sight. I then spent the rest of my golf round scared that the squirrel would show up and chase me again.

Another incident that contributed to my fear of squirrels happened in my backyard when I was younger. This incident was similar to the golfing experience I had. In my backyard we have a slab of concrete where our basketball hoop is. When I was younger I would go out there almost every day when the weather was nice and play basketball. One day I went out to the backyard with my basketball and started shooting some hoops. I then looked at my neighbor’s fence which was located behind the basketball hoop and noticed a squirrel sitting on top of it. On top of the fence the squirrel was staring at me. I tried to ignore it and keep shooting baskets. On one shot I air balled, I stood in desperation as I watched the ball slowly roll and then finally I heard the dreadful sound of the chain link fence that my ball had hit. I walked slowly toward the fence to get my basketball so I could continue shooting hoops. The squirrel continued to stare at me and as I got closer it started making chattering noises at me as if it was angry. I became scared and turned around quickly and darted into my house.

My experiences with squirrels have had a negative impact on me. Since my incidents with squirrels I have not been golfing by myself and I will not step foot in my backyard if a squirrel is present. Squirrels seem to mind their own business, but I know that they are up to no good.