Jam of the Week: "Lost Where I Belong" by Andreya Triana
Halloween has, for most of my life, been one of my favorite holidays. That's likely because, unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas, I didn't have to sit in a car for hours on the way to visit family and because I cannot deny how much I love Autumn.
Getting free candy as a kid was nice, and the sales on said candy in stores after halloween was something I did not pass up in college. However, my favorite part of Halloween has always been the costumes. There are people who are much more handy than I that put a lot of time and effort into creating elaborate and beautiful costumes.
Sure, there were premade costumes I wore as a kid, like the Blue power ranger, which I sure comes as a surprise that I related to the nerdy power ranger. There were years I phoned it in as a teenager, putting on an AC/DC shirt and slicking back my hair as Bevis and Butthead with my friend Brian.
However, my mom put a lot of effort into some of my sister and I's costumes. There was one year, I kid you not, that I went as a tornado. Now, you may find yourself asking how an elementary school kid could dress up as a column of twisting wind and debris. My mom made it happen.
Most of my Halloween memories at a young age are through photographs. But, I still remember my mom affixing this apparatus to my upper body that supported a large amount of grey wool, spray painted black. I went through phases of interest as a kid, as I think many others do. Many of those phases involved different faces of science. I went through a space phase, a dinosaur phase, and a weather phase. I also went through a phase where I was convinced I could design a recreational vehicle for about $50, so maybe I was a little crazy. Still, my mom was crazier for going with my idea of going as a natural disaster for Halloween.
Perhaps the holiday has lost some its luster since childhood. Since I'm not much of a partier, Halloween has meant watching horror movie marathons and remembering to put the outside lights on so I won't have to eat a bowl full of chocolate myself.
I expect this appreciation to continue to deteriorate as I grow older. I can't imagine having to buy a costume from a popular children's television show for a child of my own, then sending them out for a few hours. While I understand why parents do it, I certainly can't see myself tailing my child in a minivan all night.
Perhaps, in the end, holidays are what we make of them. Considering the effort my parents put into my childhood costumes, and countless hours towards other holidays, I think that might be true. In that case, I think I had better get going on a costume, or at least go raid the horror section of a video rental store. All those Jason movies aren't going to watch themselves.