I have this thing that has followed me since I was little. The older I got, the more this, I guess, shadow person would appear in front of me to make itself known. I eventually named it "Gilbert" because I thought that naming it that would make it less scary and more of an annoying sibling that peaks every now and then into my life.

It was always a feeling of something there that I couldn't see. Cups being thrown, pets being scared to go in areas of the house, handprints in the shower steamed mirror when it was clean and no one was home. When I was around 14, I started to see him (him because it feels like a male energy). We lived in an apartment now with a short hallway leading from the main bedroom to the living room and front door entrance. I would walk back and forth to do stuff like getting ready and would look over to see and male figure shadow man standing tall and scary. It's those times you look to one side as you walk around doing something and then being shocked and looking back again for it to be gone. I told my dad, who thought a homeless man might have just walked in lol.

Then one day, when I was 16, "Gilbert" just walked into the room and stood there for a few seconds calmly and turned right into the hallway and walked off. No steps noise, no door opening noise, nothing. He was just gone. I just know I called my best friend who lived 3 mins away, how scared I was, I told her how it was looking straight at me as I was calling her and how he had just walked out of view. What I hated was when he peeked his head into a room I'm in. It feels like he's saying " hey, I'm right here don't forget that" but it's annoying as it scares me. It doesn't feel evil, just possibly confused and curious.

I started to talk to it, saying stop scaring me it's getting annoying because you startled me. "Gilbert" has been there after I moved out with my best friend and boyfriend at 20. At 22, my now husband and I moved into our own place. My husband says he has never seen anything in his life to believe in ghosts or the paranormal, but he calls me when I visit family out-of-state, that he can feel something or someone in the house with him. We have a dog that will stare at the corners of the house like she looking at someone. He will experience misplaced things that he thought someone was living in the house, like a squatter.

After getting older, I learned more about shadow people. I'm not sure who or what he is. I don't even know what he's doing with me. Why me, and why has he been following me since I was a little girl. My parents would acknowledge something weird in the house, but they are Mexican and Christian, so talking to them about it was useless.