Halloween is an entertaining and exciting time for living people, but not for ghosts. We are either mocked or used as a prop for the Halloween season. For most of us ghosts, we find these generalizations insulting to our culture.

When people think of ghosts, they think of stereotypes such as Caspar the friendly ghost and cute Halloween decorations, rather than the personalities, faces and stories that each ghost carries. Not all ghosts are children, similar to how not all people on Earth are children. Ghosts appear all year round, not solely for a two-week span from October to November. No matter what we do to dispel false rumors, mortals fail to broaden their horizons on the nature and capabilities of a ghost.

One of the only reasons ghosts like Halloween is because we are allowed to act in a manner most commonly associated with humans. People are easily scared by objects floating or mysterious creeks coming from the floor, so many ghosts try to limit these behaviors to the nights leading up to Halloween. Otherwise, we as ghosts congregate at night to plan specific actions, like who watches over what territory and ways to reach out to the living community without scaring them.

Mortals may not realize, but there are always ways to bring terror to ghosts. A common fear among me and my ghost friends is paranormal hunters, like the ones on “Ghost Adventures” and “Ghost Hunters.” My ghost friends cite movies like “Ghostbusters” and potential hotlines to find and catch ghosts as the reason why they fear paranormal hunters. We also fear vacuums and the potential for a ghost to get caught and stored in a vacuum. Ghosts have found ways to take control of the vacuum to chase humans as shown in a popular social media post, but most people only think it is caused by technology.

My 243 years spent haunting this town have taught me many lessons. It is not always a good idea to reside eternity in a school. Fads and trends die faster than it takes for a student to graduate, so there is no need to stick to a fad for too long. There are always new innovations and creations to make school easier for students. Lastly, all people should reevaluate their stances on ghosts, because one day, they will be a ghost just like me. That is another reason why ghosts like Halloween; we get to find out who will join us soon.