By Nicole Fernandez | Staff Writer

Word on the Street: What was something you were irrationally afraid of as a child?

Natalie Clark 
Age: 18
Hometown: Honolulu
Major: Communications

“I was afraid of ghosts, I think. [laughs] I’m serious. I used to like to watch scary stuff, but then when I went to bed I would think about it and I just couldn’t sleep because I’d be thinking about what I watched, about the ghosts … I can’t think of any specific ghosts or movies, but I would watch them with my dad and I’d think that ghosts would like those scary things I saw.”

Perry Chan 
Age: 19
Hometown: Salt Lake City
Major: Communications

“As a child? Death. Everytime I would think about it, I would cry. It was scary, it’s still scary, but you can’t do anything about it, you know, it just happens. But I’d think ‘Oh, what if my best friend dies?’ I’m afraid of losing people … especially my parents.”

Michele Javier 
Age: 20
Hometown: Salt Lake City
Major: Hospitality

“When I was a child I was afraid of the dark. I remember sleeping over at my cousin’s house a couple times and there was this one particular night where I woke up in the middle of the night and I saw this little shape in the corner of the room, and I almost had a heart attack. I was just really afraid of the dark, so my aunty would constantly wake up to turn on the lights. Thankfully, it was just a pile of clothes [laughs].”

Wei Hao Chen 
Age: 23
Hometown: Kailua, Kona
Major: Biology

“Death, obviously. Any kind of death. From drowning, from burning, from falling off of heights. Basically, dying in general.”

Maria Bautista 
Age: 18
Hometown: Kalihi
Major: Psychology

“The dark. Well, monsters. [laughs] I don’t know, I guess I was just so afraid … that something was going to pop out at me while in the dark. I knew, though, that it was just my imagination, but I was still scared.”