I faced my fear of wasps via /r/gratitude

I needed to clear a spot for my new assault bike that’s coming in the mail. We had two big chairs that were my husbands parents that we never used. They were just tucked in the corner of the den in front of one of the back doors that we also never use. It’s the perfect sized spot! There’s a few decent sized wasp nests in between the screen door and the regular door. The last two summers Ive felt like the wasps were getting meaner, it seemed like they’d chase me inside so I spent a lot of time running away from them and just letting them win by not going outside a lot of times. When I was a little girl I got stung by a little bitty sweat bee and had a terrible reaction, I still have the scar from it. The doctors told me that it’s probably safe to assume that I’ll have a really bad reaction to regular bees or a wasp sting so they warned me to stay away. My ma’amall was really allergic to wasps so it made sense. Anyway, Ive successfully avoided them. My husband usually takes the helm and sprays them and knocks down their nests. Yesterday I decided it was time to face my fears. So I went around the house and opened the screen door to assess the situation. Yep, three big nests and about 5 – 10 mama wasps on them. Hmmmm…. So I went back inside and did some research on what aggravates wasps and decided to try my luck. I figured I needed to find out if I’m allergic or not so I can at least know for sure how scared I should be, right? Turns out that me being stressed and running around them triggers them to be stressed and leads to them going into protective mode to keep their babies safe. Makes sense!! So I calmed myself way down, wore some light colored clothing and opened the inside door. I stood there for a few minutes looking at them and fighting the urge to panic. The wasps didn’t come at me. They just kept tending to their babies. I opened the screen door, I cringed a bit when I heard one of the nests crinkle but they didn’t fly at me. So I took my time and slowly, calmly twisted the chair out of the door and let it fall down the step onto the ground. The screen door shut and nothing happened!! They just chilled and watched me do my thing. I had one more chair to get out the door so I told the mama wasps “ok, one more time, we can do this” and sure enough I was able to get the next chair out the door. I thanked them for their patience and looked at them for another minute, soaking in the beauty of nature and reveling in the empowering feeling I felt in that moment. Then I shut the door and did a little dance, a victory dance!! I’m so grateful that I faced my fears and didn’t have to hurt any wasps and they didn’t hurt me. They’re kind of cool looking when you’re not running for your life.