My earliest memory was from when I was four years old. I lived in Texas, and one weekend my parents and I went for a walk through this wooded park. We stopped by a pond to eat lunch, and after I had finished eating I went to go check out the water. I started to pick up sticks from the ground and throw them as far as I could into pond. My parents were standing behind me talking, and whenever I threw a stick particularly far I would spin around and ask them if they had seen how far I had thrown it. What made this memory particularly memorable was when I reached down to grab one particular stick, it started to squirm and writhe around in my hand. It was a snake. I dropped it instantly and tried to scream, but my breath was frozen in my chest. I ran to my parents and they comforted me, but they didn't see the snake and I don't know if they actually believed that I had picked one up. Since I was so young when this occurred, my personality has changed significantly. Now I love snakes.
I think it's really interesting that you love snakes now. A lot of people who experience frightening situations with animals at a young age retain that fear and remain afraid of that animal as adults. My grandma used to own big dogs. When I was little I tried to play with them, but they would knock me down because they were so big. I'm only slightly afraid of dogs now and I wonder if that might have contributed to it.
Four years old is pretty young for a first memory! Unfortunately, I don't remember much of my childhood. Four years old is way too far back for me to remember
This actually reminds me of a dream I had when I was young and was bitten by a snake. I tried to scream but I would just open my mouth and nothing would come out. Anyways:
It is pretty interesting that you say that you love snakes. As Azriel said, most kids who experience any sort of traumatic or frightening occurrence at such a young age are likely to develop a strong fear of it.
