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So I’m pretty sure I am in the minority when I say when I went to college, I really didn’t get into Halloween any more than I did when I was in high school. I have never gotten into the decorations, costumes or thematic elements like ghost stories or haunted houses — the elements of Halloween everyone I know really seems to enjoy.
After I became too old to appropriately trick-or-treat (no child can deny the pull of free candy), I just saw Halloween as a day that other people celebrated that happened to be 10 days before my birthday. My birthday is my favorite holiday, even though no one else sees it that way, so Halloween pales in comparison. Especially this year, as I begin to get unmanageably excited about turning 21.
While other people plan their costumes for a month and spend hours shopping for just the right elements, I got excited about taking my little brother, Paul (our brother who
is in elementary school) trick-or-treating and not doing homework. Although I did take a small commission for my trick-or-treating escort services in the form of the candy my brother didn’t want, I most enjoyed the time I spent with my brother.
I have noticed over the years, and especially in college, I get the most excited about the cute, fun things that Halloween has to offer to bring people together and not the debauchery or frightening elements.
Not only do I usually plan my costume at the last minute, I rarely partake in any other Halloween festivities other than small “celebrations” with my friends. I haven’t carved a pumpkin in years.
The most telling example of this is my favorite part of my Halloween “celebrations” last year. My best friend lived in a neighborhood
that primarily consisted of non-college students and several families with children of trick-or-treating age.
My friend, her roommate, and I got together, made dinner and dressed up to hand out candy to the kids in her neighborhood. While we did dress up in costumes, theirs were store-bought and mine was a few things I threw together at the last minute.
But most importantly, what I got most out of this experience was nothing particularly related to Halloween — I enjoyed the smiles of the little kids when they received their free candy and I had a great time hanging out with my friends. We took a million ridiculous pictures and avoided doing our homework due the next day — though that is a regular occurrence in my life.
A version of this article appeared in the Oct 28 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Gabi- Is this a diary entry that you accidentally submitted to the CT? (I/I'm = 43+ uses) (Me/My = 22+ uses)... Wow.
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Like x 100. Bill is exactly right.
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I'm glad that amongst the debates about energy use and concealed carry on campus, we have a piece of hard hitting rhetoric in the opinion article section. Crossing my fingers that next week, the CT does the article "Thanksgiving: For or Against?!?!"
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I don't even know why I read that. This article is so incredibly pointless and random.
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Why do you and your brother always write about the same topic?
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I'm so happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the random misinformation that's at the other blogs. Danas http://chaff.unblog.fr/2013/01/09/virgin-megastores-solde/
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