We are college students now. That means no more trick-or-treating, no more curfews, and no more Halloween nights of roaming neighborhoods with our parents. As we've aged, it is important to keep the holidays fun and enjoy them as much as we did when we were younger.
Luckily, this is pretty easy to do with Halloween. Sure, we don't get bags full of candy, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy the holiday.
Pumpkin carving. Whether you are carving at a mixer with your house, or hanging out with the roomies to decorate the porch, carving a creative face or design into this orange fruit (yes, it's actually a fruit) has never failed to get everyone into the spirit of Halloween. Something about the gory goop scoop and eerie glow of the candle within the finished product encompasses the mood of the season.
Costume contests. Everyone loves dressing up, no matter their age, and Halloween is the perfect time to get a little crazy with your costume. When I say crazy, I don't mean in how low-cut you can get the top without the girls popping out, I mean creative. Hang up the sexy bumblebee lingerie-wannabe and go for something that's out of the ordinary. Think like Jess in New Girl would and you'll probably come up with something that is both fantastic and adorable. She managed to make the zombie cute last season; no one knows how.
Haunted houses. Looking for an adrenaline-pumping good time? Check out some of the adult-only haunted houses around. The scaring world has found a whole new market in people from older age groups looking for a thrill, and high intensity adventures have been created to accommodate. Many of these establishments actually have all participants sign a disclaimer form because of how crazy it gets once the experience begins.
Making your own scary experience. Don't have the money for the mad houses I mentioned above? Never fear, the world has plenty of creepy to offer. Cemeteries, old hospitals and insane asylums, winding roads into the wilderness -- Oklahoma has all of these things. Really going anywhere out of the way after dark can be a scare all its own, so grab some friends, grab a flashlight, and hope a serial killer isn't wandering around where you decide to go to creep yourself out. My friends and I have done this on multiple occasions and it's a huge blast.
Scare your friends. If we don't get the treats anymore, might as well pull some tricks. I have a friend who fully convinced me a cat-and-mouse murder situation was unraveling while I was house-sitting one time, and it was probably one of the scariest experiences of my life. He had a great time messing with me, I had a freaked out time trying to escape the clutches of an imaginary killer, and it turned into a pretty entertaining story. So yes, this is me encouraging you to seriously mess with your friends. Now is the best time of the year to do so.
Don't let the scaring season pass you by without taking advantage of some of the fun it has to offer. Enjoy Halloween and all its frights while they last, soon enough the time for scares will be replaced with time for thanks, and we all know turkey is the opposite of adrenaline-pumping.