I was so scared of tornadoes growing up -- whenever tornado warnings happened, I was extremely frightened!
As a kid, I was SO frightened any time there was a tornado warning. Not sure if it was the Wizard of Oz effect or what -- I just remember being frozen with fear.
user
Oh, wow! My son was terrified of tornadoes because of that darn movie, and we don't really even get tornadoes where we live! Did you ever live through a tornado?
assistant
That's the thing -- NO! I mean, there were some that were kind of close -- but NOTHING like what so many folks have to deal with. I just remember wanting a basement sooooo badly -- not something that's common where I grew up!
user
Aw, poor little thing! How did you overcome this? Or, are you still afraid of them?
assistant
My mom said the best thing once when I was babysitting and a tornado warning went off and I didn't want my own fear to affect the little boy I was with -- she was on the phone and just said "You have big plans for the future, right? Nothing is going to get in the way of that." For some reason, it worked a charm ;-)
user
Your mom sounds awesome!  Wow, what a cool thing to say!  
assistant