Walking into the halls of A-West for Trick-or-Treat Street, I am feeling overwhelmed by the decorations. I am herded into a large group of kids like me in the commons. Walking into each and every dark hallway they placed in the commons, the darkness in the room both intimidated and scared me. Faces of each and every different costume the high school students were wearing that night ranged from light and friendly to scary and frightening at the time. I have a feeling of entrapment as I walk through the very narrow hallways, the tension building up in my chest as I walk around the corners, not knowing what feelings to express.  

I start getting panicky not knowing when this feeling will end, and waiting for the gloomy surroundings to finally lighten up. It eventually was like seeing a light at the end of a tunnel at the time of being nine years old. A weight was lifted off my shoulder as soon as I was outside of the tight and full space. As soon as I stepped out, my family wanted to go home and not stay around for the other activities.

To this day, I remember the trauma of that event–an event that was supposed to be fun but, in reality, terrified me. The article What Makes a House Feel Haunted? on the website, Psychology Today discusses that there could be a feeling of being trapped when anyone is in a place of discomfort.

“Also, the darkness and confusing layout of the haunted house may cause people to get lost, or at the very least, slow down,” says the article, which shows people that getting scared could potentially slow down movement to move onto the next person dressed up. The nervousness really builds up because nobody knows what is really going to happen next.  

Experiencing spooky laughing, hallways filled with people dressed in costumes, spider webs on the walls and ceilings, and blackness around students with sporadic lights flashing here and there, as a youngster, this was both terrifying and exciting. Looking back on what scared me back then and seeing how I act now, what really is scary to me is a whole different emotion.

Being not as jumpy to certain things anymore is in a way relieving because I am not as on edge with most things. I am not saying that things still do not startle me I mean, my family is always trying to scare me and it works almost every time.

Enjoying what A-West setup at school for younger kids was an unforgettable experience as I look back on it today.