For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to the unknown. I was intrigued by the idea of something or someone having the ability to continue existing beyond us. Unlike most, I skipped the skeptic stage.

I was always a believer in the paranormal.

As a kid, most families that have a movie night after dinner would watch a cute family movie: Spy Kids, Night at the Museum, or A Cinderella Story.

Not in my household.

I came downstairs to have dinner one night and Paranormal Activity was queued up in our living room.

If I remember correctly, that was my introduction to the paranormal world at less than 9 years old. Instead of being scared and hiding under a blanket or behind a pillow, I found it funny. It was almost like the equivalent of a comedy movie in my eyes.

Then, the paranormal world infiltrated me.

For years, my family has told me about their own experiences with the paranormal. When my great-grandfather died and his house was being cleared out, my uncle brought a night vision camera to investigate the house himself. I remember sitting down on the couch, and we all watched the DVD together.

We saw plenty of orbs going across the screen and heard countless knocks in response to his voice. That was the first time I saw evidence of the paranormal outside of Ghost Adventures or any other movies.

One night, my family and I were having our weekly game night. We were playing Scattergories when we heard knocking on the front door of the house. It was windy that night so nobody thought anything of it, thinking it was just the sound of it hitting the door.

So we kept playing.

Shortly after, the knocks grew louder and were closer together. The doorknob even twisted as if someone was trying to enter. That was when everyone knew it was not the wind. My uncle had left the table at this point eager to know what it was. Looking out the window, it turned out there was not a single person or animal outside.

We never found out what it was and we never sought out answers. These kinds of things were normal for us.

But it didn’t end there.

That was the start of experiencing my very own experiences with the ghost world.

It started with the typical knocks, bangs, seeing shadows, and hearing my name even though nobody called it out. Although it never really scared me, I always told myself if I ignore whatever this being may be, it can’t hurt me or do anything to me, as it feeds off a person’s energy.

Then they became a bit more intense.

One night, I was home alone during a snowstorm, while my mother was stuck on the bus with my sister as the traffic was unbelievable. I was in the living room doing homework when I needed to grab my charger from the room.

When I went to step into my room, I physically could not get through the doorway. I could not take a single step.

It felt as if someone had walked up behind me, put their hands on my shoulders, and held me down with all of their dead body weight.

My body did not budge.

If that doesn’t sound terrifying as it is, to top it off, I heard a whisper scream in my ears. I couldn’t make out a single word because my body just froze. I could not believe what was happening to me.

I was in utter shock.

At that moment, all I could do was close my eyes and take a breath, or else I would have freaked out.

When I finally did open my eyes, that pure heaviness I felt was gone and I stumbled into my room so fast, almost as if I got shoved into my room.

Each time I tell that story, not a single person believes me. I get told it was just my anxiety, it was just because I was home alone, but I refuse to believe that. My anxiety has messed with my mind plenty of times, but never to this extent. Especially with no trigger.

Now, when these situations happen at home, or with family, it usually does not bother me because I know I am safe and nothing can happen to me. I know my home and my family’s home better than anywhere else.

But when I had one of these experiences at work, it never left my mind and made me feel extremely tense and uncomfortable the rest of my time there.

Two years ago, I worked as a recreation attendant at a wave pool in Mount Vernon, New York. Not the best area, but nothing out of the ordinary happened when I was there. At this pool, there is a pavilion that people are able to rent out for parties, and this happens pretty often.

Like routine, I had come in for an opening shift and asked my managers if anyone had rented it out for the day so I had an idea if it was going to be a calm day or a day of pure chaos. Luckily for me, nobody rented it out.

I was looking forward to the calm day ahead of me as it was a rainy day and it tended to be slow if the weather sucked.

Well, I thought it would be calm at least.

I was making my rounds around the pool deck making sure it was clean and there were no issues. On my way back inside, a wave of nausea, guilt, and sadness came over me. Something in my gut was telling me to look up into the pavilion.

When I did, I saw the silhouette of what looked like a tall and chunky man wearing all white standing at the window with his fingers latching onto the crate staring down at the pool deck.

I immediately ran to my managers and asked if anyone was just up in the pavilion and if they were positive nobody had rented it out. They told me nobody had gone up there and they were sure it was not rented out. They even showed me that the key to the pavilion was hung up with all of the other ones.

It is safe to say that for the rest of that shift, I kept feeling as if I needed to constantly look over my shoulder.

Now, there are plenty more of these experiences that I can go on about. But those few were the ones that will always stick out the most to me.

While they are not insane like the movies and activities you see on television, they will forever be vivid memories that live in my mind forever.