Valuing a Lowkey Halloween

Hello, my fellow academic comrades and welcome to the Freshman Chronicles. For those of you who are new here, the Freshman Chronicles is a place in the SPECTRUM where I get to have fun bashing and bragging about different parts of the college experience through the eyes of a freshman. 

This week we will be going over the topic recipe for a great Halloween, and I will be adding a dash of nostalgia along the way. 

To help you submerge yourself into what I will be going over, I want you to close your eyes and recall the energy of an elementary Halloween party. I’m not sure if these were as big of a deal at your school as they were at mine, but the apprehension I accumulated within the week leading up to Halloween would be difficult to recreate. 

You see, on either Halloween itself or the Friday closest to it, we would get an entire afternoon to “party” with our classmates. 

We would dress up in our carefully selected costumes that we’d probably been thinking about since the year before. A few of my personal childhood favorites were a bumblebee, a cat, and Superwoman. 

To add to that, we would get the opportunity to eat the most delightful food known to man. Some of the most memorable menu items were powdered donut holes, aka eyeballs; a half slice of mozzarella cheese pizza, aka ghost bread; and red punch, aka vampire blood. 

I don’t know what it is about those foods, but I will always remember them with a certain fondness no matter how underwhelming they actually were. 

I know that when I have the opportunity to just let go and be young again, I take it, so the fact that I was withdrawn cold turkey from the cherished event of Halloween and laughed at for dressing up in 7th grade is quite disappointing. 

On top of it all, we also got to play fun games and watch movies. I think the game that will stick with me for the entirety of my life would definitely have to be Bobbing for Apples. 

If you compared the health standards and precautions taken from then to now, the difference is a little concerning. The fact that around a dozen of my classmates and I dunked our heads and slobbered into the same water and onto the same apples without a second thought really speaks to the current state of our world. 

All I know is that the sheer amount of germs that were transmitted from one person to another is the reason for my invincible immunity. 

Now, when it came to the movies, I can admit that my taste in elementary is quite similar to that of the current me. I absolutely loved and still love “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “The Addams Family,” “Coraline,” and last but most certainly not least, “Hocus Pocus.” 

I have to say that my obsession with the Sanderson Sisters was probably a little extreme at the age of ten, but I seem to be doing okay now, so it can’t have affected me all that much. 

In conclusion, I’m not sure why society seems to believe that after we have left the years of elementary behind, we can no longer be given the pass to find enjoyment in things that our younger selves loved.

I know that when I have the opportunity to just let go and be young again, I take it, so the fact that I was withdrawn cold turkey from the cherished event of Halloween and laughed at for dressing up in 7th grade is quite disappointing. 

It does everyone a little good to continue living childishly every once in a while because not only will it be fulfilling for who you are currently but the healing it will bring your inner child is irreplaceable. 

Now, although I may have been talking a lot of hubbub about my childhood experience of Halloween, the real thing I’m getting at here is that it will be as magical as you make it. I’ve never been the girl who goes out and “has fun” because I sincerely enjoy just staying in and spending time with people who actually care about me. 

No hate to the people who spend their time doing the activities of any regular college student, but I live with the belief that friends that will sit and cry over a pizza while watching a movie are about as valuable as they come.

I like to look back on my childhood because it was a time when I wasn’t constantly overtaken by thoughts of needing to do things to make my friends happy even if they didn’t make me. I didn’t have to worry about how people felt about me choosing to stay in over hanging out with friends.

Being a child on Halloween was a much simpler time filled with innocence and ignorance. I like to think that I get a little glimpse of my childhood when I’m hanging out with those close friends and enjoying a movie that takes me back to the good old days.

If you get one thing out of this article, I just want to let you know that even if you’re not planning to spend your night as most others will be, you should find just as much enjoyment in having your own little elementary party. 

Hit up your nearest grocery store to buy some festive snacks, select a Halloween movie that takes you back, and get together with friends to relive those glory days. I promise you won’t regret it. With that, I wish my fellow freshman good luck and God’s speed.