What I Learned At College

Most ghost stories can be picked apart by someone with a very analytical mind, this is no exception. However, sometimes no matter how much you rationalize an event you still can't make yourself believe it was coincidence.

Ever since I was a kid I have believed in ghosts, but my experiences during my first two years of college really cemented that belief. I attended a small 2 year school for women in Missouri. Very small indeed, only about 300 students on campus. The campus had a lot of traditional ghost stories just like any campus in America.

I had several different experiences while there, each one unique and very strange. The main building of the campus housed the administrative offices and the music facilities, it was also the oldest building on campus. As a music student I spent a lot of late hours there in the practice rooms or the computer lab. Once during a late night in the lab I heard a piano, thinking nothing of it I continued to work. The piano grew louder so I figured it was close, probably the piano professor, I knew that he also worked late sometimes. Despite this assumption I grew uncomfortable and left the lab. As I walked past his office I realized the sound wasn't coming from inside it, so I checked the practice rooms and the two classrooms. When I found nothing I got really creeped out, so I ran down the stairs as fast as I could. I wound up in the hall adjoining the parlor, here the sound was so loud that it had to be coming from the parlor grand piano. The parlor grand, with no one at it, and no keys on the playing face, they had been removed for refinishing. I stood there completely still and the piano stopped. The air grew incredibly cold and suddenly the double doors at both ends of the hall started to vibrate, suddenly they began slamming. These are heavy doors, with crash bars and pressurized hinges. I turned and ran out of the building in a cold sweat, not stopping till I got to my room. Once there I opened my window that faced the main hall, the light in the lab was on now, but I knew I had shut it off.

Another incident. I was alone in our suite (a living roomed share by five double rooms)every one of my suite mates were out and about. I decided to take a shower before work so I started toward the bathroom down the hall, as I walked I felt a breeze like someone walking past me, then I heard someone whisper my name. So instead of going to the bathroom I checked the suite again. No one there and nothing turned on, so I checked the adjoining suite, no one there and nothing turned on. I even when so far as to check the suite upstairs. There were girls up there but they were all in one of the rooms on the opposite side of the suite from where I had been. Convinced someone was playing with me I went back downstairs and proceeded to take my shower. While in the shower I heard my name several more times, I even left the shower to investigate, I found no explanation. So I went to finish up and suddenly the lights went out. When I checked it out I saw that the switch itself had been flipped. The bathroom door had been shut, and it had incredibly squeaky hinges and was warped so it stuck in the frame, no way anyone could have opened it without my hearing it, even in the shower you could always hear it. After my shower I was in my room with the door open when the living room ceiling fan turned on and my neighbors radio suddenly came on. I went to shut them off, and my radio came on. That was when I decided to go to work a little early just to get out of there.

Yet another incident, and this kind of thing has happened to numerous people other besides me. Our building had five floors all together, a basement, an attic, and three residence floors. I lived on the second floor with only the third floor and attic above me. Laying in bed at night I was in that comfy almost asleep phase when my upstairs neighbors dropped something that sounded like pencils or marbles. Angry but not angry enough to do anything about it I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Suddenly they started to move furniture, at about two o'clock in the morning!! No way was I going to stand for that, so I called up there. No answer and no change, but I figured they just weren't answering because they knew it was a noise complaint. So I pulled my self up out of bed and went to check it out. When I got to the landing I found my upstairs neighbors and the girls that lived right next to them just getting in. I didn't tell them what had happened, instead I made up a story about missing a movie of mine and wanting to check their suite for it so I went up with them and watched them unlock their rooms, nothing moved and nothing spilled. Super creepy.

Finally, late night cram session in the basement laundry room of our hall. A friend and I sitting there, doing laundry and studying for midterms. We had just put our clothes into the dryers so all the washing machines on the wall facing us were open, with their lids pointing straight up in the air. Suddenly, one by one, they began to slam shut, starting at the other end of the room and working towards us. We stared open mouthed, and when they were done we looked at each other like "What the #%*$!?!?" Then the lights flickered and the room became cold. Quietly we got up, left our books, and moved up the stairs. I never went to that basement at night again.

I have heard numerous other stories, alarm clocks changing times or being turned off, things that move around when your gone or that disappear and then reappear a few days later. But since they aren't mine I won't elaborate. My point being that I am not some loony, other people have seen and felt these things as well. And sure I know all of these events have perfectly rational explanations, wind gusts, faulty electrical wiring, practical jokes, but somehow that doesn't make it any easier to ignore them. So, what did I learn at college, I learned that just because you can't see it, doesn't mean its not there.