What's the challenge?
To hold a cat.
What are you afraid of?
Holding animals in general. I'm big when it comes to control, and I feel you can't really control animals the way you can control people (well, rational people). I'm afraid the cat will scratch me or hurt me in any way so I keep my distance.
How has this fear affected your life so far?
Anecdote: In college, I used to live in an apartment with two cats. They drove me nuts; they would go on top of my cereal as I was eating, they would jump to my bed, get into the sink as I was brushing my teeth and by any means I would touch these cats. It was the worst semester ever.
How was the experience?
Maria, my Colombian friend at SVA has a black cat, every time I would go to her house I would stay as far from the cat as the tiny NY studio would allow it to. She challenged me to confront my fear so I did. I went to her house and after a few attempts to hope that the cat magically would jump into my lap, I grabbed it like she showed me from the belly and lifted up the cat placing it on my lap successfully! It wasn't bad at all, the cat was oddly nice to me and it was even warm and fluffy so I enjoyed it :)
What will change from now on?
After today, I will not assume that cats want to hurt me just because they have a very suspicious look and weird kitty vibes. There's a reason why people are obsessed with cats these days and now I kinda get it.