I'm Friends With The Monster Under My Bed

I'm friends with the monster under my bed. Yeah, I know how that sounds but not only was it true, I'm coming to realize that something brave inside me blossomed out of my childhood fear.

Stick with me on this one...

How I Came To Be Friends With
The Monster Under My Bed

My imagination used to run wild...

Like most kids, I would get lost in the land of make believe often. That said, I'm pretty sure that I took it a step further than most children.

Let me explain. Once upon a time...just kidding, but seriously, here's the story.

There was definitely a monster under my bed. I had to run and jump into bed in order to reach the safety zone alive. You know, otherwise, the monster would be able to grab my ankles and pull me under.

Of course, I never imagined past that moment. What would happen if he did pull me under? Would he bite me? Cuddle with me? Growl at me? Anyway, I digress.

So far, this probably sounds familiar but this was just one of the "strategies" I had to implement to keep the monster at bay. You see, one side of my bed was against a wall. My back had to face the wall, so that I could be alert to what was happening in the rest of my room. If I slept with my back to the room, the monster could come out from under the bed and wreak havoc. So there was that.

I had the strategy for getting into bed safely and the strategy for staying secure while I slept, but something was missing.

I reached a point that these passive strategies were not enough.

It was time to take action. Of course, this meant that I had to come up with a plan should I ever come face to face with this monster. I mean, God forbid I fall asleep with my back facing the room and the monster has a split second to come out from under the bed.

Taking into account that I was special...you know, I had magical powers and I was the hero of every story I thought of...I knew what I had to do.

I would introduce myself to the monster and declare that we would be friends. Besides, monsters are lonely and they don't have any friends. Maybe that's why they wait under little kids' beds to scare them, they have no one to play with. I imagined the whole thing in my head down to the handshake with the furry claw.

That was it. I figured it out. I had faced my fear.

I did sleep MUCH better after that, but jumping into bed and my back facing the wall were still requirements for quite a while.

The interesting thing is that this explains some of my behavior now.

For one thing, I sleep with pillows on all sides of me. I don't have a wall to put my back against with the way our bed is configured now, so a body pillow shields me from the edge of the bed on one side and my husband on the other. LOL. (I'm laughing while I write this.) If you ask me about it now, I'll probably mention the comfort factor but really analyzing this leads me back to the monster that used to reside under my bed.

The other thing is that when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and come back, I always subconsciously slightly pause in my half asleep stupor when I'm standing next to the bed about to get in. For a hot second, I give the monster under my bed a chance to reach out and grab an ankle but he never does. Because if he did that now, I would kick his ass. And I think he knows it.

I think that part of my imagination that takes things to the next level never really went away. Obviously. I never really grew out of it. I think that's why I LOVE sci-fi movies and tv shows. Just ask my husband...he hates all those "neck biting" shows I watch.

Most notably, I think being friends with the monster under my bed paved the way for being brave when facing a fear and coming up with solutions for frustrating problems.

I'm not saying that the monster under my bed is why I'm so organized (that comes from somewhere else), but it certainly contributes to being able to think on my toes and let my creativity flourish.

Thanks monster. I guess you're a true friend after all.

If this story resonated with you or, at the very least, entertained you, then don't forget to tweet out the below tweetable and/or put your email address in the form below to connect with me.

Also, a big shout out to Matthew Turner aka Turndog, epic brand story discoverer and conqueror, for inspiring me to reach deep down into my soul for this and to share it with you.

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