Blog 3

Monsters
Ghosts
Alien Invasions
Santa Claus
The Devil
Generosity and compassion in people

As a child growing up with over creative and imaginative parents, I developed a few beliefs in the stories they told me. From my mother coming up with stories about monsters that would come to get my brother and I in the middle of the night, to stories my father would tell me about ghosts and haunted houses. For a long period of my childhood I had to sleep with my lights on. As time went on so did the stories, now I heard about alien invasions, religious tales of the rapture and how I’d wake up and find myself all alone one day, The devil. From what I’ve already stated you can tell I had an interesting childhood. It wasn’t till I about thirteen years of age that I began to question these tales of ghosts and monsters coming to get me. I recall one day I was acting up at home with my brother and my mother came into the room and told us if you don’t stop right now she was going to call the monsters to come get us. At this point never having seen a monster first hand I dared to say “Go ahead and call them I am waiting” oh I remember the look on my mothers face. The look itself let me know that I called her bluff and she was not expecting it at all. She tried to restate it again “I’m warning you” was what I heard, but at this point it was far too late for me to turn back. I stood strong with my words and didn’t back down I replied again “Call them I am waiting.” She left it alone and left the room laughing a bit. A few weeks later she pulled me a side and asked me how did I find out it was all made up by her, I told her it was do to the fact that out of all the years I heard these stories from her not once did I ever see a so called monster. So my mother had monsters, now my father use to talk to me about ghosts, spirits, and haunted houses, so for a time if at night I heard a sound I was beyond freaked out. Worse was when my grandmother or mother were in on a joke and would wait till I was in my room and the house was totally quiet. They would start making all type of sounds in the kitchen and then a few minutes later one of them would crawl up to the side of my bed and yell, “BOO”. If these things didn’t send me a shrink I don’t know what would. The time had come and I was placed into religion classes. Oh and guess what now I had something new to fear “The Devil”. I was taught that the devil is around us and tempts us to do wrong everyday and if I were bad I’d be going to “Hell”. So for a time I was on my best behavior. Something happened though as time went on I began to come up with my own ideas and I felt like well if he is around us where is he cause I’ve never seen him once. I asked questions to as many people as I could about this “Devil” character. No one gave me any real feed back so I just brushed this character off like others in the past such as Santa Claus, the Easter bunny and so on. Now since I was in my teens I had beliefs that everyone in the world had generosity compassion and understand. I believed that everyone had a good heart. Now my beliefs were shattered as soon as I stepped foot into New York City on my own. What I knew and believed at that point was so wrong. I found people to be so rude and lack compassion and understanding for one another.