My Time in the Paranormal: Was It Worth it?

Well, as you can plainly see, I'm not some host of a TV show where I'm interviewing some whacko looking person, I don't host my own radio show, and I'm not getting rich off of fooling anyone that I can get in contact with ghosts. So, the short answer is, no. Then again, neither did the countless other idiots who did this for the fame and fortune (like that douchebag named Stu who wanted to do "Naked Paranormal" because apparently looking at porn was getting too boring for him); they are all working regular jobs. I mean, for those who have stuck it out and actually give a damn about the paranormal, good for you. Keep grinding. Keep finding answers to the impossible. But that's more of the fame and fortune side of it. Let's go deeper.

My time in the paranormal was relatively short. I was here during the middle of the paranormal craze and then stopped shortly after the craze lifted. As said in a previous post, the only time the paranormal seems relevant to the "normies" is during Halloween again. It's back to being a unique hobby and quite honestly, I prefer it that way. Now, you don't get every Dick, Harry, and Kerry who is doing this for, as mentioned before, fame and fortune. We don't have these so called psychic mediums over charging poor, ignorant fools and claiming they can contact their lost loved ones. Oh, I know some of them do exist still, but not as much as back then. Why? Things have gone back to normal and normal is what the paranormal needs to progress. When something get's popular, the posers come knocking, demanding their handouts and then once the fad dies, they disappear. It never mattered to them. 

So, what am I, then? Am I an opportunist who took advantage of a fad? I don't think so. Yes, the paranormal soaring in popularity did help sharpen my interest, but even before I still had an interest in it and have since childhood. Now, I think it's a case of real life getting in the way. I have to work, I have to pay the bills, I have a family life. I can't find the time to write and keep up with the research like I did when I started Scared Sheetless. Back then, this blog and the paranormal were my life. I eat, slept, and breathed the paranormal every second. I wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, I was trying to be a cog in the workings of the paranormal. Reporting on it, having conversations, theorizing aspects, questioning even my own beliefs in religion, the paranormal, and more. When it was fun, it was great. When it wasn't? Of course, it wasn't, but when it was scary? It was even more fun, not gonna lie. I think the adrenaline of fear is what attracted so many prospects to the paranormal mines. Unfortunately we all didn't find gold though within those mines. 

Fast forward ten years later, a lot of people I knew on Facebook who had their groups, sold their merch, had a podcast, and found some monetary gain from the paranormal are now not in it. It's a blip in their history. Never to be mentioned in great detail again. I mean, unless the fad comes knocking again, of course. But for myself, Scared Sheetless is an unfortunate after thought, forgotten more from the creator than the hundreds of people who still frequent this dead site every day, which baffles me, but at the same time, I'm honored people are still entertained. My own friends and family don't even mention my time in the paranormal, the time I made the front page in the Littleton Courier, the time I made it on Yahoo! (is that even a thing anymore?). Again, it was a blip. It only mattered when it was a craze. None of the contributors are still contributing. Hell, I've lost contact with all, but one that being Chris Chaos, who still tells me to bring this site back, but he's more into the urban explorer route now than the paranormal. I haven't even talked to any of the members of NEPI, the paranormal investigation group I was with, for quite a while. Some of them deleted me from Facebook years ago. Why? Because only the paranormal brought us together, but now that the paranormal is a dead fad, the friendship died with it. Oh, sure, as a disclaimer, I have two still on my friends list, but I probably haven't talked to either in a few years now, aside from the obligatory once a year 'Happy Birthday'. 

Which reminds me, the only thing that really sucks about the paranormal fad dying is that I lost a lot of great relationships because of it. Those laughs, those bumps in the night, those times we just sat down and discussed our passion for the unknown? It's gone. Jeez, writing that all in retrospect really makes me miss those days. But I guess that answers the question. Was it worth it? 

Yes.