Some cosplay as anime or video characters. Others summon their "inner demons." Some people get fake doctorates for a night; others get red paint for botched surgeries. Some paint masks; others buy them. There is an array from Party City: werewolves, angels, demons, witches, wizards, clowns, unlicensed surgeons, zombies, 2019's Joker, ninjas, superheroes, and the cultural-appropriating, child-ruining, and/or morally-wrong costumes that were removed from the stores. Don't get me started.

But to the matter at hand, this is the main question of the 31^st: "What are you going to be for Halloween?"

To be honest, I don't celebrate Halloween parties. The most relevant thing I ever did in the recent years was binge-watch the entire second season of Stranger Things in one night when it came out. I don't go to haunted houses, or do trick-or-treating, or watch the gory scary movies. This Halloween, I will be in my cozy house, heated at 74^o after a long day of school, being one of the very first people in the world to play Luigi's Mansion 3 when it arrives in the mail. However, even if I'm not partaking in the parties, I will be already dressed in scariest costume in existence. In fact, I wear it every day. Myself.

I am "the overworked college student."

I am a twenty-year-old college student who has condemned himself to a hellish path of cramming, essays and planning for a degree. I spend half of my week in the library, binging on plain bagels with cream cheese and butter, skimming textbooks, and jotting down notes. I am fueled with paranoia when my next exams and quizzes come along because they align with others conspiring to test my knowledge. If I pass, I survive. If I fail, I drop down the rabbit hole of the percent. Playing with Canvas numbers has been a steady routine of mine, an obsession with calculations, hopes, and desperation. It's gotten to the point where I have accepted the slogan, "C's for degrees." I am an insomniac, a wreck who doesn't get more than five hours of sleep. I spend all my days, frightened about the next trial and tribulation. Because it takes one bad grade to condemn a student to oblivion.

And I'm scarier than all of you witches and vampires because I'm real.