Anyone who knows me know that my absolute favorite season is fall. I love the smells, the weather, the leaves changing, the activities, I love absolutely everything about it. I am also a firm believer that everyone looks better in the fall with their warm sweaters and fall tone clothing items. At the first sign of fall my heart rate picks up, this is a proven fact. This year the first time I saw a tree changing colors I got so excited that I actually forgot how to breathe and my friends got very concerned because all I could do was hyperventilate and say the word "Fall". Now there are a couple of holidays, for all different religions, that happen during this season. There is The Day of the Dead, Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, High Holy Days, Halloween, and Shemini Atzeret. My favorite holiday out of all of them, and even out of all the holidays in general, though is Halloween.

My love for Halloween started when I was a very little kid. Each year we would get all dressed up and spend this haunted day with our good family friends. I went to a Catholic elementary school called Holy Cross when I was younger and they had a few fun events lined up each year for Halloween. To kick it off each year we all wore our costumes to school and each class joined together for a parade around the school where all of our parents and family members watched on with cameras at hand. Then, later that night, they had an even called the Halloween Howl. The Howl usually consisted of games you could play to win loads of candy, a haunted house (or later on a bouncy house), great music, a fortune telling gypsy, and a costume contest. Within those events hold some of my best Halloween memories.

Then on actual Halloween, my brother and I would get all dressed up and our family would head over to our family friends, the Edson's, house. The night would consist of lots of tricks but even more treats. When we were younger my best friend Thomas' dad would drag us along in a wagon from house to house where we would proceed to ask for some, if not all, of their candy. As we got older we separated from the parents and started venturing out on our own for free goodies. Each year we would go further and further through the neighborhood.

I remember very clearly that one year we were just about tired out and heading back towards Thomas' house when we came upon a house the boys decided they wanted to ding-dong-ditch. I was very against the idea but, as the only girl in the group, my vote was overruled. So the boys ran up and rang the doorbell and sprinted away. I, however, was not as fast and so when the lady came outside yelling about how we didn't grab our candy, I shamefully walked back and collected my goods. The boys were nowhere to be found so I continued on my path from house to house, slowly making my way back. By the time I returned the boys were already doing our tradition of candy trading in the basement while Goosebumps was playing on the television. Little did they know that by leaving me to walk back on my own I had managed to get twice as much candy as they had. A large amount of the people handing out candy felt bad when I told them my story of my friends ditching me and had given me almost half of what was left in their bowls.

I continued trick-or-treating up until my senior year of high school (yes, I had to convince the boys to come with me) and even this year I did a version of it within my residence hall. Halloween is a holiday full of good memories and good laughs and it will always have a special place in my heart. It's going to be very strange spending it without my family and my closest friends but, I am just as excited to make new amazing memories with the little family of friends I have here.