I’m using the term “paranormal” here to mean “unexplained”. I am not claiming that any of my these experiences were ghosts, or demons, or angels, or aliens, or interdimensional travelers. Although, I am pretty intrigued by the idea that I am living my own version of Interstellar, however unlikely that may be.

This experience is a bit different than my other experiences. I was in the sixth grade, so probably about 12 or 13 years old. My mother had picked me up from my baby sitter and we were driving to my Nana and Grampy’s house in Portland. It must’ve been a Friday, because that’s probably the only day that my mom would have made that trip to have dinner with them. We took the turnpike as usual and got off at the usual exit #8 (now it’s #48, they changed the numbers a while ago). At the time, you had to give a magstrip card to get off and on the Turnpike, so the Turnpike Authority knew what to charge their customers. So the exit today doesn’t look like it did almost 30 years ago, but we were waiting in traffic for our turn to give give the magstrip card when we both noticed that there was this really bright white light flashing. It would’ve been around 5:30-6:00 in the evening, and probably closer to summer for there to be any daylight at that time. The light was like a strobe that was surround us from everywhere. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, try as hard as I might to search for it.

Exit 48 (use to be Exit 8).

My mom eventually got the toll attendant, she swiped her card and we went on our way. She turned right onto Riverside St. And the light was still strobing and I was still searching. We were stuck in traffic, so things were moving slowly. We eventually got to a stop light (around Riverside and Warren) when I looked up and behind me and saw the source of the strobing light.

Right about where we where when I saw it (up and to the left, behind me).

It was a massive U.F.O. It was really close to the ground (maybe 50-100 feet away). It wasn’t a U.F.O. shape I’ve ever seen from any television shows before or since. It kind of star shaped and was golden colored. It had a hexagon or pentagon shaped middle with “spokes” that came out from each side, each spoke ended with a spherical shape and the ends were all strobing the white light. I yelled for my mother, “PULL OVER, PULL OVER, THERE IS A UFO!” and that completely freaked her out. She told me, “she couldn’t pull over” and just proceed to my grandparents house as soon as the light turned green. I quickly lost sight of the floating machine and as soon as we reached my grandparents house, I got out of the car and searched the skies for another glimpse, never to see it or anything like it again. Later she told me that she was completely freaked out by what I said I saw and just wanted to get out of there.

The intersection w/ a doodle of where the car was and where the UFO was.

What did I see? Was it a semi-shared hallucination? Was it an alien spacecraft? Was it an interdimensional traveller? Was it an angel? I guess I’ll never know for sure but I’m also still pretty annoyed that my mother didn’t pull over and look at it with me. She never saw it and it would’ve been nice to have a set of adult eyes on it. Over the past 20 years or so I’ve hit up random UFO forums looking for someone with a shared experience but I’ve yet to find one. It was in broad daylight during rush hour, which honestly makes me question my own experience. I’ve also thought about going to a hypnotist to try to get more details about the memory, but I’m not sure that is even legitimate.

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