Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Goal #2114: See What it’s Like to be Bitten by a Snake

I remember as a little kid always wondering what it would be like to be bitten by a snake. I know it’s kind of a weird thing to wonder about but consider the source. I remember seeing those horror movies where someone who was being especially bad was taken before some vicious looking voodoo priest to be “taught a lesson.” The priest would place a cobra or some other venomous snake in front of their face and let the snake bit them over and over again, injecting their body with poisonous venom. The idea of having a snake bit me was a terrifying thought, and yet I was so intrigued by it.

When I was 15 I decided that I had to face my fears. I wanted to know; no I NEEDED to know what it was like to have a snake bite me.

I wasn’t about to let a snake bite me in the face, but I was OK with it biting me in the hand. That was far enough away from my eyes and my brain that I knew it would be OK.  I decided to do this with a gardener snake. I knew that gardener snakes weren’t poisonous and their faces were small compared to a rattle snake or a cobra. I figured I was relatively safe with something like a gardener snake.

I caught a snake in the field by my friend’s house. We rough it up real good so it would be good and mad. Then I put him up by my hand and let him have a go at me. It didn’t take long for the snake to react.  

It hurt a lot more than I thought it would. He bit me in the hand in that meaty area between the thumb and the first finger in the upper side of the hand. I think the thing that made it hurt so much was first, the fact that the snake was wiggling around so much while it had its fangs buried in my hand. Second, the adrenaline was surging so strong in my body that I think it amplified the pain more than it really was. Either way, I finally did it. I finally discovered what it’s like to be bitten by a snake. It isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I think that once is enough. And best of all, I didn’t need to find a voodoo priest to help me do it.    

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