Sylvia Wynter's Dream

In the spirit of Halloween, I wanted to speak on something a bit more ghoulish and haunting. A belief that many of us heard about while growing up was that of ghosts, spirits (both good and evil) and other kinds of phantom beings. Aside from the season being a reason I wanted to explore this, I also wanted to tie in my final topic for the project which is all about remembering youth. 

I remember the first time someone shared one of these haunting stories when I was only eight years old. This was a story about a teacher that had died at my prep school prior to me going there that still roamed the compound and haunted the classrooms on an everyday basis. They had given her the name ‘Pink Lady’. This name was given to her because of how pale the lady was to the point where her skin appeared reddish-pink. There was never an explanation as to why she was haunting our prep school – all we knew is that everytime a door suddenly flew open, she was strutting into the classroom and making her presence known. Of course, as children, we couldn’t understand how ridiculous that all sounded but the words ‘ghost’ and ‘spirit’ were enough to scare us into believing she was real and was watching over us everyday. Looking back, it may have just been a teaching mechanic teacher’s used to control their classes because to this day I still have no idea what the actual name of the teacher that died was nor if she was ever a real teacher. If it was all a way of calming students down, my prep school was definitely successful in doing so.

Another ghost story I remember hearing at a really young age was from the helper that my family had around the time I was six years old. She claimed that she could see and speak to ghosts including that of my late god-mother – Andrea. Andrea was my mother’s best friend who, unfortunately, passed of cancer and left her one daughter – my god-sister – Jodie. My helper kept preaching to my mother that she should adopt my god-sister officially and take her into our home to live. However, my mother thought it was just craziness and paid her no mind. This was especially because, at that time, there just wasn’t enough space for her in our house so my mother couldn’t realistically take her in. While my mother thought it was just foolishness that my helper was talking, I was completely scared and believed every single word that came out of that woman’s mouth. I remember being so scared that something bad was going to happen to us if we didn’t take my god-sister in but clearly I am still here so nothing happened.

I think that as children we are more gullible and naive to many things. As a result, we tend to believe every little thing such as these ghost stories from my childhood. I have found that as people get older, the belief in these supernatural beings tend to fade for the most part with continued belief in things such as God, angels and demons as opposed to the very far fetched stories. Many people no longer seem to believe in ghosts and now consider them all just fairytales. I consider myself one of these people as I do still have a strong enough religious connection but a ghost story like the ‘Pink Lady’ wouldn’t phase me now. This is a topic of conversation that is discussed quite a lot (whether or not ghosts and spirits are real) and there are always conflicting beliefs and real life stories and experiences that people will share when this topic is brought up. Therefore, I would love to hear what you guys think. Are you a believer in ghosts and spirits or not? DO you have any experiences with these kinds of beings? Would you try to force your belief onto someone? Let me know!