As soon as September turns into October, it's time to get spooky.

The leaves are changing colors, the days are getting shorter, and the weather is getting colder. Halloween was arguably one of the best days of the year as a kid: Free candy? Awesome costumes? Halloween movie marathons? What more could you want?

One thing I'll say though is that it gets harder and harder to enjoy as you grow up.

You have to buy the candy yourself because it's socially unacceptable to trick-or-treat past age 13, the costumes get smaller and smaller but the prices go way up, and the new Halloween movies that come out just don't satisfy you like the old ones.

My roommates and I have a bag of chocolates sitting in the mini-fridge, I just shelled out $90 for PARTS of the costumes my friends and I are wearing, and I can't find a decent haunted house anywhere near campus (let me know if you can).

So how can I get in the Halloween spirit when all the odds are against me?

One thing I want to do is trick-or-treating in the dorms. Imagine knocking on all the doors in your hall in your cute new costume and getting candy! I see three positives: more people can see how amazing you look, you get free candy (of course), and you can meet everyone that lives in your dorm if you haven't already! Really there's no downside.

Next, is decorating your dorm room so it's super festive. Right now I just have a string of orange lights hanging by the window but imagine all the possibilities! Spooky stickers on the window, spider webs lining your bed frames... really you can't go wrong. If that doesn't get you in the spirit from when you wake up to when you go to sleep, I don't know what will.

Finally, the thing I am going to try hardest to accomplish is to carve pumpkins with my friends. You can make your jack-o-lanterns scary, you can carve in your sorority letters, or you can write an inside joke. JUST DON'T PUT A CANDLE INSIDE, candles are not allowed in your dorm rooms if you didn't know that already. Still, they make excellent decorations as well as conversation pieces.

Halloween is what you make it... don't be a Jim.