Last night, I had a terribly frightening experience with a rowdy cicada that happened to leap and bounce into my path. Up until my second class, it seemed like nobody would be able to sympathize with my phobia of the screeching insects.
When the lone student from my second class entered complaining about the heat, I admitted that I too disliked the current temperature spike. I made a comment linking the season to the dreaded cicada clan, at which point she shared her horror story with me. She’d been going about her daily activities in her house yesterday when she had noticed something skipping along the floor. Going closer for a better look, she realized that it was a cicada the moment that it flew into her face. She tore from her house screaming in fright, not returning until one of her family members had returned the cicada to its natural habitat – outdoors.
Normally, she wouldn’t have shared such an embarrassing story because most of the people living in Japan are able to cope with the presence of the cicada during the summer. But in an attempt to relate to my own experience and lessen my feeling of foolishness, regarding how I had reacted to encountering the screeching cicada, she had told me her story. I was very grateful to this student for making me realize that I am not alone in my fear of ‘the reign of the cicada’.
-SJ
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