Now that it is October, we all are in our festive spirits! The days leading up to Halloween will be filled with movie nights, baking spooky treats, carving pumpkins and enjoying the company of friends and family. Yet, this spooky season does not feel the same when you are a college student. Instead of basking in movies and treats, college students are plagued with midterms for the month of October. Instead of having fun like we once did during our younger years, we have to face the difficulties of being an adult.
Most of us as children watched movies every day on Disney Channel in the days leading up to Halloween. Whether it be Halloweentown, Twitches Too or Hocus Pocus, everyone enjoyed the feeling that these movies gave us. Certainly, some of us were very anxious to go home from elementary school to turn on the TV. But now that we are in college, it is just not the same. Although we have some time we can use to watch Halloween movies, there will always be that thought in the back of our minds telling us that we should be using our time more productively. Instead of watching Halloweentown, there’s a voice in the back of our heads telling us we should be studying for an upcoming midterm or catching up on homework assignments.
Another October tradition that many of us once participated in is carving pumpkins. Of course, not all of us took part in this tradition, but for those of us that did, we can reminisce about the fun we had carving pumpkins with friends and family. Sometimes our pumpkins were ugly, and we were jealous of the pumpkins that other friends made. Or, a week after we carved the pumpkin and left it on the front porch, the pumpkin became rotten. This is the nostalgia that we all have, and this is an experience that many of us miss. In college, it seems too much of a hassle to have to spend money on a pumpkin and the materials. So, we have just stopped partaking in this fun experience overall.
And the most important aspect of spooky season that we miss: trick-or-treating. It is always a nice feeling to see children in unique costumes walking around neighborhoods and malls to trick-or-treat. We were once part of the group of children going to different houses for candy. The joy we experienced came from dressing up and from waiting anxiously to see how many candies the neighbors would drop into our bags. The best part of coming home from trick-or-treating was pouring out all the sweets from our bags onto a pile on the floor. We would then compare our candy piles with our friends and siblings to see who had the largest stack. Most importantly, we would bargain and trade our unwanted candies for better ones. Sadly, there comes a certain point when we eventually believe that we are too old to trick-or-treat. For many of us, this point may have arrived somewhere in high school, in which trick-or-treating was no longer a custom that we got excited for. Additionally, because trick-or-treating is seen as a childish activity, most college students do not trick-or-treat because we are essentially adults now. Even more unfortunate is that some of us college students have midterms on the day of Halloween as well.
The spooky season is a time to get into our festivities: classic and scary movies, pumpkin-carving and eating sweets. Yet, as we get older, these festivities are no longer the same as how they were during our childhood. Because we are in college, many of us feel too old or are simply just too busy. Thus, the spooky season does not really feel like spooky season. Maybe we will feel the spirit for a day, but the time before and after this day of festivity is filled with studying, working and sleeping. Still, despite how we spend our October, one thing remains the same: the spooky season is for everyone to enjoy.