Hesitant on Halloween

Hesitant+on+Halloween

Every year, on October 31st, children go out into the night to go trick or treating. They bring their friends and wear costumes of unicorns, witches, and sometimes even scarier things like bloody clowns. But the thing is, people are getting older, and as middle schoolers, we are no longer little children as we used to be. So what does our middle school community say about the childhood tradition of dressing up for Halloween?

I asked my friend, Cameron, what he thought about dressing up for Halloween. He said that most of his friends would be dressing up, but he would not because he thought he was too old to go trick-or-treating. However, both he and his family still participate in Halloween traditions such as decorating and carving pumpkins. 

Through Google Forms, I asked the school what they thought about the topic. 15.3% said that they were in fact not dressing up for Halloween, 29.7% said that they weren’t sure, and 55.1% actually said that they were going too! But, the fact still remains that 15.3% of middle schoolers aren’t up for tricks or treats. 

Over the past few years, I’ve seen many of my friends dress up, but instead of dressing up as unicorns or fairies, they now dress up as famous killers from horror movies, zombies and other scary things. This makes sense because kids tend to be more adventurous as they get older, reading scarier books, and going through haunted houses that they would never dream of even walking up to when they were younger. 

Teenagers also often think more about what other people think of them. In the morning, they often become more concerned about what they look like, what they’re doing wrong, how people will judge them, and how they can blend into the crowd. This could be a reason for some people choosing not to dress up for Halloween.

I will be dressing up for Halloween, as I believe that it is a wonderful holiday that deserves to be celebrated (by those who choose to celebrate it) in a way that is joyful and fun. Throughout the years I realized that I have grown out of past interests, becoming more intrigued by different topics. I’ll be wearing a costume of Pennywise from IT this year! The difference is strong between a Hermione Granger costume and a Pennywise one!

So what do you think? Will you dress up this year?

Art credits go to Madi Preuss