Even in the midst of all the mid-semester homework and tests on top of working and attempting to keep a somewhat balanced social life, there are still somehow things that make me extremely happy.
The month of October reduces my stress level significantly, and it still surprises me that a simple little change in a month can have such an effect on my mood and overall outlook of life.
As a Tech student, I need all the stress relief I can possibly get my hands on.
October is the month when the weather finally begins to cool down to a bearable (and sometimes even enjoyable) temperature. The leaves change colors, the breeze picks up and the outdoors becomes so incredibly pleasant.
It is my favorite month for these reasons and one other that is by far the very essence of the month: Halloween.
Everything about October just screams ghosts and goblins and witches.
There is a pumpkin on practically every doorstep, and those who are particularly huge fanatics of the holiday even go as far as decorating with spooky ghouls and robotic monsters meant to scare anyone who comes near.
It brings back many fond memories of trick-or-treating in homemade costumes and stuffing myself with sugar until I felt completely satisfied and slightly sick to my stomach.
Halloween is one of the few holidays that hasn’t lost its magic as I’ve gotten older. Growing up and learning that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny aren’t real changed the holidays for me and made sure that they were never quite the same.
Halloween, however, is still just as great and magical as ever. I can now watch scary movies that I wasn’t allowed to watch as a kid (even though I’m still just as scared of them as I used to be). I can still eat candy until I feel sick and I can still dress up in a costume and I don’t feel like I am too old for it.
Adult beverages definitely enhance the experience as an adult celebrating the holiday, but the childhood spirit is still fully there.
It’s not one of those holidays that people dread because they have to drag themselves home to spend tons of not-so-anticipated time with their family. It’s not one of those holidays, like Christmas, that loses its spark until you have children of your own to rekindle it. It is certainly not one of those holidays that you cannot celebrate unless you have a sweetheart.
Halloween makes me feel like a child again.
I get to dress up as whatever my heart desires (though for most women now involves a little less fabric than it used to), and I still have to explain to everyone what I am supposed to be as I eat myself into a sugar-induced coma.
Going to the pumpkin patch and picking out a pumpkin with the smell of hay in the air still brings as much enjoyment as ever.
As if Halloween night itself wasn’t great enough, the weeks leading up to it make October that much better. For me, it is filled with late-nights spent watching scary and often horrible movies that perhaps should have never made it to the big screen in the first place.
A few of the recently watched greats are Trick-or-Treat, My Bloody Valentine 3D and The Thing. No matter how terrible or scary the movie, I am much more likely to watch it during October than I am throughout the rest of the year.
The spirit of the holiday helps me overcome the “scared-y cat” in me and I am able to watch movies I usually wouldn’t. (Sometimes I watch only through my fingers, but I watch them all the same).
As adults, not only can we watch movies that we weren’t allowed to as kids, but we can do other things as well. Halloween is almost improved by getting older, which doesn’t happen with other holidays.
We are now able to satisfy our need for adrenaline thrills by going to the scariest haunted houses in the state and paying to practically pee in our pants as we scream our insides out.
We can also pay to go get completely lost in a giant field of corn that has been cut into a maze.
The weather, the movies, the traditions, the spooky objects, the costumes and the candy all make the month of October my favorite of the entire year.
To put it quite simply, the month when the undead is celebrated makes me happiest to be alive.