I was 9 years old when I had my first paranormal experience. I was living in Jacksonville, FL at the time. The house I lived in was built in 1951 and had only been in my family. I know for a fact that no deaths or anything tragic occurred during the time our family had lived there. So, I really have no idea who I saw or why they showed themselves.

It was during March when it happened. I was asleep in my room and woke up around 3am. I saw an old man with a white beard and a white gown standing at the left corner foot of the bed. He was only there for 2 or 3 seconds then he was gone. He never moved or spoke, just stared. At that time I wasn't really sure if what I saw was a ghost or just my imagination, so I just rolled over and went back to sleep.

I have never experienced anything paranormal on a day to day basis, it can be quite some time between one event and the next. The next time was when I was 12. I was spending Easter weekend with my grandparents, and the night this happened was Good Friday. I was sleeping out on a couch in the living room, because the house was full of people. I was having a bad nightmare, which I don't even remember now. I woke up to see a man standing at the end of the couch staring at me, he had a really evil snarl, and I just got this angry feeling from him. Still not sure if I was seeing something real or not, I reached down to the floor next to me, while staring at him, and put my glasses on. Yeah, he was still there. It seemed like he stayed for quite a while, just glaring at me. Finally, I got up the nerve to whisper, "Go away", and he just vanished.

During that time I had never spoken to anyone of my experiences, I had always worried that it was just in my head, or that I'd get made fun of for it. It wasn't until age 15 that I knew I wasn't completely crazy. At this time, I was spending the night at a friend's house with about 5 or 6 other girls. We were up late talking and during the night 2 things occurred. First we were in the kitchen talking, the window faced the back yard, we could see what looked like a tall man walking in the middle of the yard, and then he just vanished. A little while later, we went to the living room. There was myself and 2 other girls on the couch, and we were sitting across from the tv which was turned off. After a while a reflection showed up in the tv, it was a man in red, and from the reflection it appeared that he was sitting right in between my 2 friends. Needless to say we all screamed and ran out of the room.

After realizing I wasn't completely alone in seeing these things, I started to get up the courage to talk about it. When I was 16, I brought up to my mom and brothers that I had seen a ghost before. While telling them, I figured that I would get laughed at, or just the brush off, but my mom said that was no big deal, she's seen spirits her whole life. Then one of my brothers started talking about the things that had happened to him. It was actually a relief to know that they had similar experiences.

During that time, my brother and I got even more interested in the paranormal. We started off by reading books, and online articles. Then started going along on the ghost tours in St Augustine and Fernandina Beach, FL, to familiarize ourselves with the local haunts. Then came investigations, our first one was a private home of one of his friends. Then we started working towards cemeteries and the more famous spots.

I'm glad I spoke up about my experiences. Now I'm doing something that I love, and have an interest I can share with some of my family and now my boyfriend. Even after all the studying and investigations I still don't consider myself an expert on the subject. I am learning new things all the time, and enjoy hearing different interpretations or other people's inputs on the manner.