When I was 7 years old, I was always afraid to go to bed alone. I thought there were monsters, so I would make my dad tuck me in every night. Even then, I wouldn’t go to bed when he would leave. I would sit there and wait for about 15 minutes until I thought I had watched my room closely enough. I thought there was a monster under my bed that would grab me and pull me underneath if I didn’t sleep in the exact middle of the bed. It scared me enough to where I still sleep like that out of habit. I thought there was another monster in the corner of my room that would swoop down out of thin air and take me away if I didn’t pay enough attention to that wall.
As I got older, I realized that I was being stupid and that monsters don’t exist. But at that time, I started to pay attention to the world around me and began to believe in beings of the supernatural. I was convinced that the monsters I saw when I was younger were really ghosts. That there were ghosts of little children that would come down the hall to my room and play around my bed and sometimes hide under it. That the ghost in the corner loved to sit in my old rocking chair and watch me sleep all night. As soon as I would turn off the lights, I would rush to my bed and jump in so the ghosts couldn’t get me. For some reason, I thought that if I had a light on, they wouldn’t bother me. So my night light remained in my room and in my bathroom. But one night, when I was 10 years old, my night light went out. I woke up in the night to darkness. I thought the ghosts would swoop down and take me away to somewhere far away from where I wanted to be. But I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing. I woke up the next morning relieved I had made it through the night. I was proud that I had stood up to my fears and conquered the darkness. I never used that night light again.
I am now 19 years old, about to turn 20. I still believe in the paranormal. I know that they are there watching me from a distance but that they are there to protect me. I believe in anything that isn’t proven in science because it, too, can be wrong at times. So I believe in werewolves, fairies, vampires, wizards and witches, and of course, ghosts. I love stories and books that have them in it; they consume a big part of my life. Brenau is chalked full of ghosts. They are everywhere. I don’t know what or where I would be now without the paranormal in my life. But I do know that it will always be a major part of me.