I used to believe in ghosts. Then I stopped. Now, I kind of believe in them again. Emphasis on “kind of.”

Have you ever looked for ghosts? I mean really looked for ghosts. Bloody Mary and Ouija boards are fun, sure. But at Waterworld, an abandoned water park located in beautiful eastern Pennsylvania, I saw a chance to take ghost-hunting a little more seriously. I’m going to cut to the chase now, before anyone jumps ship thinking this post is the ramblings of a crazy person: I don’t think most things are ghost evidence. While there was some weird stuff, it was the usual “weird stuff” that resulted from using equipment that I’d scraped together over the years. A broken clock is bound to be right twice a day, and a spirit box is bound to spit out a few timely syllables that can just as easily be considered nothing.

But honestly? I don’t really care if ghosts are real or not. If they are, cool; if not, okay. I could have walked out of Waterworld having gotten no evidence, compelling or otherwise (and in most buildings, that was the case) and it still would have been a blast. It’s fun to get out of your comfort zone and challenge your knowledge—and it’s an important part of self-formation! But doing that in a real, physical sense is so much more different—and more satisfying—than just watching other people do things you think are cool. Why would I stick to watching videos of other people hunt ghosts when (whether I believe in ghosts or not) I can hunt for them myself?

There seems to be a lot of pressure to not “do things” unless you’re an expert at them. Not to blame the internet, but we tend to see polished final projects more than we see works-in-progress online. So why bother to even start if your first accomplishment doesn’t look like an expert’s? The answer is surprisingly simple: because it’s fun! It’s fun to sing whether you sound like a crow or a blue jay. It’s fun to draw comics whether they’re stick figures or hyper-realistic portraits. It’s fun to hunt for ghosts even if you don’t believe in them, even if your “tools” are random items, even if you’ll never do it again.

Try what strikes your fancy (within safe reason, of course)! You think it’s cool that people can play piano? Why not check it out for yourself? Worst case scenario, you don’t like it—but even then, you might have a fun story to tell!