I know adulting is hard, but there are some exciting things you can do when you finally gain some independence. Halloween is right around the corner, and some of us may be missing our younger days when all we had to worry about was stuffing our faces with candy, and picking out a cute costume.
Keep reading to reminisce about childhood Halloween experiences, but also to see what Halloween has in store for us young adults!
Trick or Treating
Childhood: Halloween is the time to stock up on candy for the year. The biggest assignment you completed all year was mapping out the route of which houses to hit, in order to score the most amount of candy. You knew exactly which houses in which neighborhoods gave out the most candy. It was an exciting and strategic game.
Adult: Since you can buy candy whenever you want, the excitement isn’t the same. That being said, free candy still brings joy in life so you contemplate on dressing up and swinging by a few houses anyway. After deciding against that, you’re either stuck as the one handing out candy at the door, or you wait until November 1, to stock up and take advantage of the clear-out sales on all the Halloween candy.
Treat Police
Childhood: Trick or treating meant candy, and lots of it. As a child, we would eat ourselves sick with candy, attempting to eat or hide all the candy we wanted so our parents wouldn’t take it away. But if your parents were anything like mine, my bag of treats would disappear after about a week. As kids, parents act as the candy police, monitoring sugar intake. I remember my parents stashing away my hard earned loot somewhere and keeping it hidden away, allowing me to pick only a few pieces a day.
Adulthood: You think you’d have more self-control by now…but no. Stress eating is a thing (especially among collegiates in midterm season), and candy and chocolate are just addicting. Instead of your parents hiding your candy, you end up hiding them from yourself!
Picking Out Costumes
Childhood: As a child, your costume meant everything. It wasn’t just another day to play dress up, it was a day to embody your favorite princess, superhero, animal or character to show off.
Adulthood: Costumes often lose their innocence once we’re adults. Cute and cuddly costumes turn into scary and sexy attire. That pirate or nurse costume you sported as a child morphs into “sexy” pirate and “sexy” nurse outfits. There are a few approaches to costumes as an adult:
1. You’re not into it, no dressing up whatsoever.
2. You search all over for the perfect outfit for a costume party, and come to terms with the fact that you may have to spend about $50 for a costume you many only use once.
3. You look in your closet, or watch YouTube videos to gain inspiration and see what can pull together “DIY style”. When in doubt. I always opt for a black cat; all you need is all-black attire, some heels, and a little eyeliner to draw a nose and whiskers on your face. Plus, it can never hurt to throw on some cat ears!
Party Time
Childhood: You used to hope that Halloween was on a school night, so you’d have an excuse to stay up later, and so you could trick-or treat with your best friend and then have a sleepover on a school night. Maybe you’d even attend a Halloween party, where apple bobbing was the highlight of the night. Even better, you could bring the best and worst candy you collected the night before to school the next day and trade with all your classmates.
Adulthood: Now you hope that Halloween will fall on, or near the weekend, so that you can still go out and have a good time without worrying about missing lecture, or being too hungover to function. Nobody wants to get out of bed for an 8:30 class anyway, let alone after a night of festivities.
Movie Marathons
Childhood: As kids, there was nothing better than watching movie marathons of featured Halloween Disney movies. The days leading up to Halloween were filled with fun films such as Halloween Town High, Twitches, and Hocus Pocus. While never too spooky, some still kept us up at night, and when we got scared, we could always run to mommy and daddy.
Adulthood: Now, as adults, our movie marathons are based on anything horror. We still may not like scary movies, but that doesn’t stop us from get together with friends and spooking ourselves for fun. Instead of grabbing for mom and dad, you huddle on the couch with your bffs yelling, “Don’t open the door!” or “Don’t go in there!” Also, despite knowing that there no monsters under your bed, you still proceed to check, and insist on sleeping with the lights on for a few nights while recovering from the terror.
Pumpkin Carving
Childhood: Friendly faces, or goofy smiles were often what we carved as kids. Pumpkin carving was fun and exciting as a child…except we weren’t very good at it. We couldn’t use sharp knives, and our parents would often be the ones finishing them for us.
Adulthood: We’re a little more turned off from scooping out the insides of the pumpkin ourselves now, but our carving skills have gotten better. For those of us who still enjoy this festivity, the designs we opt for are more intricate, spooky, and visually appealing. Even better, we get to roast the pumpkin seeds for a yummy study snack later.
Haunted Houses
Childhood: I still have memories of a haunted mummy spooking me from the back of a truck, as I was trick-or-treating as a child. Since then, as a kid, haunted houses were not on my agenda. Tears of terror often seeped out of my eyes at the sight of anything too scary, so haunted houses were literally my worst nightmare!
Adulthood: Now that we’ve all matured a little bit, we’ve grown from avoiding scary things at all costs, to paying people to literally scare us! As the young, adventurous adults we are, many of us may seek a little thrill in our lives the days leading up to Halloween. Haunted houses, or Fright Nights at Playland are now a high priority on our to-do list for October.
So what’s the verdict? Who do you think has it better? Let us know what you think, and be sure to have fun and stay safe this Halloween!