Although it can feel somewhat odd to have Halloween on a Wednesday, it does have the distinct benefit of providing a full two weekends of festivities.
Last year on Halloween my intramural flag football team had a game, and since I was the coach and captain I dressed up as June Jones – complete with all black clothing and a lei.
However, this year I was free on Halloween night and so I took full advantage of it.
I hung out at the ever-festive D11 with several of my friends and there were some great costumes. With Homecoming and float building such recent events, a friend of mine won the award for most terrifying costume – dressed as pomp (OK, she was a piñata, but piñatas aren’t scary).
We had a Batman and Bane showdown, PSY and his dancing buddies showed us how to break it down Gangnam Style and Dez Bryant demonstrated how a professional drops the ball all night. Peruna even made a guest appearance with one of his handlers.
I never really celebrated Halloween when I was growing up. To this day I can’t stand scary movies or any of the spooky parts of Halloween. You will never find me in a haunted house.
The fun part about Halloween for me is dressing up and being someone you’re not for a day (or in the college setting: a few days).
The annoying part of Halloween is the never-ending discussion about said costumes.
The usual target is the nature of women’s costumes, which simply add “sexy” as an adjective to some other costume.
People disparage others who use this one night to be something they usually are not, and totally unfairly.
Although you won’t find me dressing up as a sexy vampire any time soon, I have no problem with people who want to do so. My friend dressed up as Magic Mike.
Although I was slightly terrified when I opened the door and saw him wearing only a vest and really tiny Nike shorts, I applauded his creativity and self-confidence.
People need to worry less about other people. If someone wants to dress up as a sexy vampire or Magic Mike, it’s not your place to tell them not to or to shame them about it.
If someone wants to dress up as an undead axe murderer-well that would terrify me, but I would never dream of lecturing them about it.
My high school was big on acting as morality police, and that is simply not okay.
Although Halloween costumes are kind of a silly example, it really does highlight people feeling the need to worry unnecessarily about others.
My own life is plenty busy and complicated enough that I don’t have time to spend worrying about other people’s opinions or choices.
As the Roman poet Ovid once said, “Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.”
Ray is a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
