Whenever someone asks you what your favorite holiday is, you immediately think of either Thanksgiving or Christmas/Hanukkah. Some people throw in Easter, some people enjoy Independence Day, heck, even some people like Valentine's Day. But I believe there is one holiday which does not garner nearly enough attention in the ranks of holidays...

Naturally, I'm talking about Halloween. Hold your criticisms because this is legitimate.

I know that the other holidays are deeply ingrained into the values that surround them like gratitude or generosity, but I firmly believe Halloween has values that we don't even bother to think about because candy and pumpkins and ghosts and yeah you get the gist.

Take a step back, think about it for a second. When you prepare for Halloween with your family by carving Jack-o-Lanterns, that's a time you spend with them and bond over sharing your creative ideas. It may sound corny, but taking the time to carve a pumpkin with someone teaches you patience and teamwork, because sometimes those flimsy carving kit tools break and you have to improvise. They say patience is a virtue.

When you first went out trick-or-treating as a child, what did your parents tell you? Probably to be polite, and always thank the person who gives you your candy. A little bit goes a long way, and you have to practice something to make it a habit, so I believe that trick-or-treating on Halloween serves as an excellent way to teach that. As a shy young one, trick-or-treating helped me become more comfortable talking to strangers and overall a more polite, thankful person.

Another, larger facet of Halloween is consuming the candy, which honestly doesn't sound like that much of a life lesson, but if you dig a little deeper, there's definitely something to be said about it. Sure, candy is full of sugar and causes obesity yadda yadda yadda...but it's only one day a year. One singular day in an entire year that you get to indulge and enjoy a sweet escape to a world of chocolate among other sweet flavors, and that's enjoying the little things. It doesn't come naturally to many people, so I feel that Halloween can teach you to enjoy the little things, and savor the sweet candy that you visited so many strangers to acquire.

Hopefully I've just opened your eyes to a different, more constructive view of the underappreicated holiday that is Halloween.