Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Arreaga
Hi Michael, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story of how I started investigating the paranormal and the mysterious stemmed from my childhood fascination with ghost stories and the macabre. Growing up consuming books, television shows, and just about anything I could get my hands on involving ghosts, monsters, ufos, strange places, etc. shaped my life through today. Being a musician in a heavy metal band for most of my adult life accounted for most of my free time. Then it happened. March 2020 – the year the world shut down. The pandemic put most everyone’s trajectories on hold, especially performing musicians. With the downtime gained by not rehearsing or performing, I found myself needing to occupy my time with learning a new skill. That’s when I concluded that it was time to try my hand at video editing and content creation. Aside from metal music, just about the only other area of expertise I have is in my knowledge of the paranormal. I decided to become a story-teller and share my travels to well-known mysterious places with a non-existent audience on YouTube. One follower became two. Two became three. Before I knew it, I had amassed a few more followers than I ever expected from a novice video editor. What further surprised me was the reach. Somehow, don’t ask me how, I had followers from other countries engaging with me through video comments. When the world started spinning again, I had to find time to strike a balance between being a full-time software engineer, playing in two metal bands, living a physically active lifestyle, relaxing on long motorcycle rides, and continue telling my stories as Monster Michael. As I learn to balance all the components of my life, I still find the time to keep growing and developing. Most recently, I earned a certification in cryptozoology from completing a course taught by highly-acclaimed and well-respected cryptozoologist, Ken Gerhard, star of Missing in Alaska, featured in MonsterQuest, Ancient Aliens, The Unexplained Files, and author of several books. Be on the lookout for my international travels as I tell tales of legends from overseas.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the biggest challenge with being a story-teller is time. It takes time to travel to new and foreign places. Furthermore, it takes time to PLAN the travel to these destinations. It takes time to talk to locals and to interview establishment owners. Shooting video takes on-location is a lengthy process. It seems as if no matter how easy it is to tell a story casually, articulating clearly and at the right pace, is actually quite a challenge. The more takes you shoot, the more frustrating it becomes. The more frustrated you become with a skill as basic as speaking English, the more takes you are require to shoot. It becomes a vicious cycle! Easily however, the most time-consuming aspect of doing this, is the amount of time it takes to go through all the footage you’ve recorded to find the best aspects of the story.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a paranormal investigator. I’m a world-traveler. I’m a social media story-teller. I combine those travels to paranormal locations and tell these stories on social media. The Monster Michael series started as a small project to share interesting stories of the paranormal while honing my skills at video editing. As more interest grew in these short episodes, I began to take the work a little more seriously. With great enthusiasm, I love to tell stories about the ghosts and monsters which haunt a locale. There’s something primal about fear. There’s something euphoric that happens when something strange happens to you to which you have no rational explanation on the cause. There’s a little piece, even the tiniest fraction deep down inside all of us, that thinks, “What if…” It forces us to suspend our modern, enlightened thought for a brief second, to experience what our early ancestors experienced. The paranormal connects us all. We all search for answers and seek the truth. Each one of us, no matter where we come from, no matter our background, despite our divisions and beliefs, share that little piece of our brain that experiences that same feeling, if even for a nanosecond. It makes us all connected. I want to elicit that feeling.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialmonstermichael
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@monstermichael
