For me, Halloween has always been a very communal holiday. Since I was in kindergarten, I would come to school in costume and parade around in the annual Halloween parade at my elementary school and then in my high school as well. Even though my excitement for this tradition changed throughout the years, it was always something to look forward to because it was a time when everyone was allowed to just be creative and silly. In elementary school, I liked the parade because I liked singing the Halloween songs our music teacher taught us, in middle school I liked watching the costume contest (I won one of the awards in 5th and 6th grade!) and in high school I liked seeing what clever costumes my peers- but more importantly, my teachers- came up with.

Additionally, I would come home from school and look forward to my non-immediate family members and some friends coming over to my house to eat dinner (which always included roasted pumpkin seeds) and then go trick-or-treating because we lived in a prime trick-or-treating location. Even when I personally stopped getting candy myself, I liked handing it out and seeing my cousins' costumes and the neighbors costumes. I have many great memories from throughout the years, like the year the Giants were in the World Series on Halloween, and the year when my friends and I stumbled upon the fancy house who had 49ers cheerleaders handing out candy the same year we were dressed as cheerleaders.

While this will be my first year not partaking in any kind of Halloween parade or handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, it is not something I am inherently sad about. Overall, it wasn't the parade or the candy that created the great memories (ok, maybe it was the candy a little bit), it was the feeling of community. So while the Halloween community aspect is a little different here, it is still possible to create new happy Halloween memories. Maybe standing out in the cold trick-or-treating will translate to standing out in the cold on Greek Row trying to find a party to go to, and planning the best group costume for the costume contest with friends will turn into communally going to a Halloween store or pharmacy the day of Halloween to scrounge together a last minute costume that is also under 10 dollars. Or most importantly, sorting through our trick-or-treated candy with my friends will turn into stress eating candy in the dorms while writing a paper. But whatever happens, I'm excited to make new memories with my Barnard/Columbia community.