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Fear is a funny thing. Many times, a person's fear is explained through traumatic experiences - either to oneself or a loved one.
Yet others end up as completely random, an unknown reason why something worries or scares someone. At Notre Dame, within the men's basketball team, it is an odd mix.
Fears range from the serious - losing your parents - to the fictional - the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man.
And who fears the Marshmellow Man, mind you? That'd be Irish senior guard Kyle McAlarney, a Staten Island, N.Y., native and a very big Ghostbusters fan.
"I remember having nightmares about that when I was little and I don't know, I guess I really can't pinpoint my biggest fear but that really stands out as I had a few nightmares about it when I was little," McAlarney said. "I just vividly remember the nightmare.
"He was chasing me, chasing me down the streets of Manhattan."
While the rest of Notre Dame doesn't have fears quite as vivid, Insights caught up with the Irish to find out, well, what their biggest fears are.
Mike Brey: "Rollercoasters. I'm not a great rollercoaster guy. My daughter gets pissed off I won't go on any of the rides with her and my wife. And of course, any time we go to a beach and there's that hang gliding, they all do it and I'm not. I'm just, I didn't sign up for that.
"I don't know what it is or where it started. It started at King's Dominion. There was this thing called the Grizzly when I went to DeMatha High School we went down there. After the Grizzly ride I've never been the same, age 19. I don't know if that still exists but I've never been the same."
Luke Harangody: "Biggest fear? Whew. Jeez, you threw me off there. Losing my parents. I just couldn't see them not being there."
Luke Zeller: "That's a deep question. My biggest fear? My biggest fear is probably letting down the people closest to me. The people that are closest to me are the people who have been through everything with me and the people I care about the most and I guess letting them down would be the thing that would hurt me the most.
"I like saying I'm afraid of heights because it's kind of funny."
Tory Jackson: "Still, my biggest fear is flying. Any time I fly. I just, it's so scary, I don't know what it is. I watch too much TV. Then we get off the plane, something always comes on about such-and-such going off the ramp or whatever and the wheel came off or something like that. I'm like 'Man, that could have been us.' So that's my biggest fear. Always.
Even when I was young, I used to ask my mom to drive me everywhere, AAU trips I used to always want to ride and not want to fly. I used to be scared of thunderstorms and now I'm scared of flying."
Zach Hillesland: "Not doing what your passion is in life. I think a lot of people get caught up in the whole money aspect of things but I'd live to regret things much more if I looked down the road in 15, 20 years and wasn't doing something that I loved. I guess that's my biggest fear but at the same time I'm not too worried about that because I'm pretty in tune with that whole situation. I don't think it'll ever be something where I'm unaware what I'm doing and going down a road that I didn't want to travel."
More from Hillesland…from a more tangible variety: "I don't like spiders. I don't like the insects very much and that's usually a pretty common theme. People either usually say snakes or spiders and there must be something along the line or some sort of mythology growing up. Snakes have gotten a really bad deal in a lot of creation myths as far as being the bad guy so people have a lot of problems with that. And obviously the whole venomous aspect really get to you as well. But spiders creep me out more because you don't even know where they are until they are right here."
Ryan Ayers: "Letting someone down I guess, not working as hard as you could of or not living up to your expectations, I guess. Then that means you didn't put in as much heart and as much work as you should of if you really wanted it that bad, you won't have anything to stop you to get it."
More from Ayers…From a more tangible variety: "Rodents, it's terrifying. Snakes aren't bad, whatever. Spiders aren't bad. Rodents are terrible. Rats, oh my god. I used to like them, used to have all these guinea pigs and hamsters growing up. Now, it's I have no idea. It just came out of nowhere, really. If there's a rat, I won't sleep there at night probably. It better not happen. If it happens, I'm hurting somebody."
In the effort of full disclosure, Insights will also let out his biggest fears: Like Harangody, losing my parents is not something I'm prepared for. Also, I have a great fear of mushrooms.
