It’s that time of the year: Notos exhales a brisk air across the land, a watercolor of sweet yellows and burnt reds, with canopy tree-lined streets, soon to fall and become a carpet of seasonal adoration. That’s right, it’s the fall. A time of inappropriately bundled up white women, a slurry of pumpkin this and spiced-maple that, the most photogenic of the seasons. One of my favorite parts of the fall is, of course, Halloween. A day where children and adults alike indulge in their adolescent desires; dressing up and eating too much sugar (or, perhaps drinking too much and remembering a time where they once could rely on Reese’s peanut butter cups for happiness- yikes!) and participating in a universally understood spookiness. There’s no better time of year to bring out the old scare tactics than Halloween, and what better way to do so than through a Halloween costume?

Being scary on Halloween is not, however, the only reason to dress up. You might want to bring someone relevant to pop culture to the table. Perhaps you’re packing up your annual “Scary Baby” costume for something funnier, something more Instagram worthy. Perhaps Pickle Rick? Because if you’re not watching "Rick and Morty," are you even a participating member of ironic millennial culture? Or how about Salt Bae? The man who applies salt with such grace and elegance you might find yourself asking, “Did I really just watch a guy put salt on meat three times in a row on loop?” These are relevant and perhaps Instagram worthy, but it’s not completely safe to say they capture the essence of Halloween. After all, as much as a pop culture costume is funny, and might win you the $50 Dave and Buster's gift card at your intern office party’s 3rd annual Halloween costume contest, can it really be a proper Halloween costume if it doesn’t have the scare factor?

The answer is no, but no worries, not all hope is lost. There happens to be a fantastic overlap of the scary and the relevant in 2017, and you don’t have to be Zombie Miley Cyrus to capture such a concept. Instead, you might consider a less apparent mashup of the horrifying and the popular, like the presidency? Or perhaps those associated with the presidency; make a comical b-plot reference to the characters we so often forget from our crazy cast of characters (!) such as Steve Mnuchin, General Mattis, or Jeff Sessions. The best part is, to execute these costumes, all you’ll need is a suit, white skin, and a never-ending flood of power.

There are other, more conceptual concepts, that you may want to consider when designing your ultimate 2017 Halloween costume. Using the same play-on-words style dress-up, one might consider utilizing in the execution of their French Toast costume, Spelling Bee, and Han Solo cup costume, you could represent concepts such as Ignorance, Racism, or Political Jingoism. Sure, it might be easy to throw on hoop earrings and spaghetti straps to transform into Bella Hadid. Certainly, if you, homeboy, walk through in that costume, you will most certainly get it. And maybe your friend could be a pair of sneakers, and the whole costume would be a couple’s heaven. But the only really scary concept backing that costume is the blatant deterioration of language, as portrayed through Bella Hadid, so why stop there. Instead, perhaps try a couple's costume like “Donald Trump Gaslighting the American People.” Give them a good scare!

There are so many scary figures in our society; so many ideologies which for the first time in far too long are being rehashed and brought back into the light in 2017. It’s terrifying, and it’s real, and it’s relevant. It beats out any Vampire or Harambe that might come waltzing your way.