I've always wondered what the source of fear of Friday the 13th, or scientifically known as paraskavedekatriaphobia. I don't even know how to pronounce that. Wikipedia, the world's foremost authority on everything on the interwebs has some of the sources.
I don't buy any of it. I've always had favorite numbers, colors, and other things. But fear of specific things was not in the cards. Sure I have fears at times, but not all the time for the same thing.
However, several years ago, I began to wonder if Friday the 13th would be the end of me. What started at one incident became a trend for a few of years. I don't remember the year, but I was either a freshman or sophomore at the University of Maryland. Parking in Lot 4 because I was an underclassman and walking to class with some friends, we had a car whiz by. One of my friends asked me if I was OK. I asked why, and found out after looking ahead at the car. Their right side mirror was hanging by a thread. Man vs. Machine and I won. My elbow wasn't any worse for wear, because basically I didn't feel it.
The next year, I was in the worst car accident of my driving life on again, Friday the 13th. While I was physically fine, my 1991 Camry was another story.
Some point later, while driving to Ocean City, MD, I had my transmission light go on. OK, so that wasn't horrific at the time, but a week later, when my car decided not to work anymore and I had a monster bill, I was very fearful.
All of those incidents occurred on Friday the 13th. But I've been incident free for the past few years. Maybe the fear is over.
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