I've always been less averse to spiders than most other tiny crawling things, but I remember the exact moment I realised that spiders are amazing. The following story is probably not entirely true, I forget the details, but this is how it lives in my memory:
I was maybe twelve or so, hanging out at my cousin's house, when I saw a relatively big ant on the floor. Having nothing better to do, I started watching it, and noticed it was trying to eat a tiny spider. In terms of size, it was like a dwarf vs an elephant, but Tiny Spider wasn't scared. It started dodging the ant's strikes and going around it, crawling over it, tying it up with spider silk. After several minutes of epic arthropod duelling, Tiny Spider had completely tied up Huge Ant's legs and immobilized it, all while I watched. I don't know what happened next, but I assume the spider ate the ant and then left the silk-covered head at the entrance of the colony, as a warning to others.
Tiny Spider is my hero.