Even though October 31st only comes around once a year, going to Pitt makes Halloween seem like it never ends.
Going Through a Corn Maze
Getting to the end of a corn maze is almost impossible, and getting from the Cathedral to upper campus is just as hard. You have to take lots of twists and turns and can’t find a way to get yourself out of the trap that is the pedestrian crosswalk on Bigelow. Just when you think you’ve found the fastest way to Sutherland, a construction site pops up out of nowhere you’re left turning around and restarting. The entire time, you can see the end but just can’t figure out how to get there. Once you finally do, it’s an hour later, you’re discouraged, and you’re sweating profusely.
Candy as a Meal
Eating copious amounts of candy is accepted at Halloween, and it is in college as well. Eating three candy bars for dinner is cheaper and faster than preparing an actual meal, and it just makes sense to combine dinner and dessert. Besides, they’re “fun size,” so the 20 Snickers wrappers scattered across your room are misleading.
Dressing up in Costume
In college, your lack of sleep and constant exhaustion make you look like a dead corpse. Some people pay crazy amounts of money and spend hours on Halloween on makeup that makes them look like a rotting skeleton, but the lifestyle habits you have in college do that for you at no cost. Your face is sunken in, your skin is colorless, and your eye makeup from two days ago gives you the perfect dark rim around your eyes to scare anyone away.
Constant Fear
Witches, ghosts, and monsters leave people shaking; quizzes, exams, and homework are no different. The look on your face when you leave an exam is the same look you would have if you had just seen a ghost and the shaking and tears after going through a haunted house are the exact tears and convulsions you experience after checking CourseWeb. While at school, the possibility of a pop quiz or a missed assignment causes you to live in a constant state of panic and fear, just like on Halloween.
Trick-or-Treating
Walking up to the houses of random strangers and asking for candy is a Halloween favorite, and the Pitt activities fair is no different. With hundreds of booths in one concentrated area, all you have to do is walk up, smile and nod while they’re talking, and take a piece (or a handful) of candy from the table. Everyone knows you’re only there for the snacks, so there really isn’t anything to hide. What’s even better is that you don’t even have to dress up.
Haunted Houses
The suspense and fear you experience before walking into a haunted house is the same feeling you have while walking up to a house party on Atwood. You more than likely have to pay to get in, you don't know who or what's inside, anyone could approach you at any given time, and someone could be following behind you the entire night without you even knowing. The only difference here is that there are no rules that guarantee that people can’t touch you, so watch out for that.
