So what’s a nice girl like you doing chasing ghosts in the dark? Or Bigfoot? Or aliens?

It’s a long story.

People are especially confused at how someone who comes from a very clinical, scientific field could be interested in such nonsense. Well, it started when I was young — a little girl, in fact. Having been a fan of Star Trek, a little show you may have heard of, I also became interested in a show hosted by Leonard Nimoy, titled “In Search of…” exploring all the mysteries of the world.

We lived in the country and used to sit on the back porch at night making tape recordings of what we were convinced was a Bigfoot call in the woods behind our house, but in retrospect, was probably just a cat in heat.

But — the possibilities, the mystery.

Nonetheless, between that, and horror movies at a young age, I was obsessed with ghosts and anything paranormal, although I didn’t know that term at the time. Fast-forward to that clinical, scientific part of my life as a nurse.

Have I got plenty of weird stories I could tell you about late-night private duty and all the patients who asked me, “Who’s that lady in white at the foot of the bed?”

Insert nervous look to my side at 3 AM.

But I was always like, oh those UFO people are nutty or those Bigfoot hunters are wasting their time. (Okay, stop laughing.) Things started changing when I did private duty on Friday nights for a man who always watched the History Channel. You probably know where this is going. Enter Giorgio declaring it was aliens every five minutes. Some of it, I wasn’t buying, but a lot of it was pretty compelling. I now refer to “Ancient Aliens” as the “gateway drug” to opening my mind to alien activity (and looking at the “X-Files” in a whole new way.)

I was still convinced those “Bigfoot people” were being kind of silly. Enter Greg and Dana Newkirk. And enter my introduction to the ultra-terrestrial theory about Bigfoot. I have to say I’m still not sure I’m a believer, but I know one thing. Well, maybe two or three:

I just put it down payment on some land in Daniel Boone National Forest where there have been a lot of alleged Bigfoot sightings, as well as being close to Somerset with all of the UFO and possible goblin activity. And so much more that’s been outlined by the International Paranormal Museum.

Plus of course, you have your usual haunted places that pretty much every town has. So I am moving into the middle of a hotspot for all three phenomena. Right in the middle of a sort of paranormal triangle if you will. I’m not there yet, mind you, as this is very raw, remote land and needs everything. So I’m still stuck in Indiana but hope to return to my roots as my daddy was from Hazard, Kentucky.

And to start my version of “In Search Of…”

Because I may not be sure of a lot of things especially when it comes to the paranormal, but I’m sure of this: a world without the possibility of something beyond us and some sense of wonder at the mysteries — that’s a world that’s entirely too boring to live in. I may be a skeptic, but I want to believe.