October’s always a month to remember. It’s full of pumpkins, hayrides and it ends with the biggest event: Halloween. As we grow older and aren’t innocent little kids anymore, Halloween isn’t as easy as it used to be; it’s not all about the candy and pumpkins.
First of all, Halloween used to just be one day. As kids, we’d all prepare so much for this one day by getting costumes, carving pumpkins and decorating our homes. Now, we still prepare just as much, but there are multiple nights of one Halloween party after the other. We don’t even celebrate Halloween on Halloween when it lands on a weekday. We have classes and homework and would rather save it for the weekend to drink and de-stress.
We celebrate Halloween now for a longer period of time, but we don’t do the stuff we used to do. We don’t watch the classic Halloween movies like Halloweentown, and we’d rather drink pumpkin spiced lattes (or pumpkin spiced rum) than eat candy corn. We’ve ended up making every event that we’ve related to Halloween into a drinking fest.
When we were little, we had so many costume contests where we would want to be the best dressed and most creative. Now, we care more about looking good and hot and not looking like an idiot. I mean, half of us from time to time still do those outrageous costumes, but mostly, we’re dressed up as a cat or an angel. We’re also all broke college students who want to avoid putting in too much money for a costume.
One thing I miss about Halloween is trick-or-treating. I always loved counting the amount of candy after the night was over and seeing who got the most out of all my friends. I also miss being able to eat all of that candy as a kid. The night would end with all of us having stomachaches from eating too much candy. Now, we wake up the day after, still having a stomachache, but from a hangover. I miss being able to come home from school every day to an unlimited supply of Halloween candy. I don’t remember the last time I ate candy corn or one of those Reese’s peanut butter cups shaped as a pumpkin. We’ve also changed a lot of our traditions, like instead of carving pumpkins we’re smashing them. I don’t even remember the last time I went on a haunted walk or to a haunted house.
A big thing that’s changed about Halloween is how stressful it can be now. As kids, we were never stressed and all we felt was excitement about all the activities leading up to Halloween; we just cared about having fun and eating candy. Now, being broke and overly busy, Halloween tends to be more stressful than it should be. We scramble to find a costume and plans for each night of the weekend. We just want to drink every day of the week leading up to and after Halloween and end up forgetting more than remembering.
Everything about Halloween has changed so much, but it’ll always be a day that’s full of memories, both bad and good. We all just want to have fun for Halloween, but it’s definitely just as fun to stay home some nights and watch horror movies or even to go on a haunted hayride. Enjoy your Halloween, but if you really want to make your Halloween less stressful, stay in one night and carve some pumpkins or watch a few scary movies instead!