Today's Holidays: Halloween, Increase Your Psychic Powers Day, Carve a Pumpkin Day, National Caramel Apple Day, National Magic Day
Website of the Day: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/caramel-chocolate-and-candy-apples-recipe-2014628
Fact of the Day: The most popular Halloween candy in New Jersey is Skittles, with M & M's a close second!
For the past seventeen years of my life I’ve gone trick-or-treating. I don’t think it’s because I truly enjoy the act of trick-or-treating that I prolonged this event, but more so that childhood and trick-or-treating are linked together, and I wasn’t ready for childhood to end. I remember when my parents would let Jake and I go around our neighborhood alone for candy before we went out to Main Street. There was this youthful excitement in our steps as we would run from house to house, saying “trick-or-treat” if someone answered the door, otherwise dumping the whole bowl of candy into our buckets that was left out on the porch with a sign that read “please take two”. Even in middle school, I’d feel such a thrill of mystery as we waited for a new door to open, hoping for large candy bars instead of the Capri Suns or little packages of pretzels. As high school approached, trick-or-treating began to lose some of its excitement as it was replaced with parties, but I still held onto my childhood. For the past two years, I’ve taken my youngest brother, Sean, around trick-or-treating: a nice way to spend time together, but also an excuse to keep trick-or-treating in my life.
I didn’t prepare for this year to be the year that I had to say my goodbyes to trick-or-treating. A week ago, I asked Sean, now thirteen years old, if he wanted to go trick-or-treating together again this year, and all I heard was silence on his end for a while. He then told me that he was probably going around with his friends this year and “kind of wanted to go alone”. At first I felt hurt, but then I understood that at thirteen years old, you like to start feeling that sense of independence, and having your older sister take you around trick-or-treating doesn’t particularly say “independent”.
Feeling lost from my usual tradition, distant from Halloween, and grown out of my childhood, I had to find a new way to celebrate. I started off my morning by picking out all of the orange and brown M & M’s to put into the homemade chocolate cookie dough that my mom was making. I like to think I contributed by not only putting in the M & M’s, but test tasting the cookie dough (to make sure that it was good, of course) multiple times. Breakfast had never looked so good.
Julia, Aspen, and I also decided to go pumpkin picking at the farm that I work at over the summer, Lee’s Turkey Farm. Given that we went pumpkin picking on October 31st, there weren’t many pumpkins left. However, there were just enough for us to do a full on, multiple poses, earmuffs and no earmuffs, photoshoot. I bought a new pair of white muffs from Aerie, so today was there debut! We even moved the photoshoot from the pumpkin patch to the apple trees midway through. But don’t worry, we didn’t leave empty handed; we brought home a few pre-picked apples from the farm’s market, and 300 pictures to choose from for insta.
As the sky grew darker, the doorbell rang, and five or six kids stood on our porch with their baskets stretched out in front. One boy, dressed as a racecar driver, revealed his braces in a big, goofy smile and said: “trick-or-treat”. I looked around at each of their excited faces and saw a younger version of myself. Suddenly I was back in our neighborhood with Jake, sprinting from house to house in an attempt to secure the best candy. Yet as I reminisced, I didn’t long to return to those days of the past, but rather I felt a new sense of happiness now being on the other side, handing out the candy to kids and being a source of their youthful, Halloween excitement. My happiness wasn’t one of mystery or thrill. I didn’t feel any of the adrenaline I used to when I trick-or-treated, but it was a redefined type of perspective, a newfound appreciation for the next chapter (not to sound cliche) of my life.
When some part of you feels as if it is ending, it may just be the most beautiful opportunity to start something new or redefine the past to fit your future. I may have been upset at first that Sean no longer wanted to go trick-or-treating with me, but I found a different way to celebrate Halloween, and I know now that childhood never truly ends. It will always occupy a space in my present, but even as it fades and I enter into adulthood, I have much to look forward to as I learn more about the world from an increasingly mature and experienced mindset. Today I handed out candy to trick-or-treaters on my first Halloween standing on the other side of the door, and perhaps one day, I’ll take my children around to trick-or-treat, forever being a part of this endless circle of youth and excitement.
Happy Halloween! How did you celebrate? Comment below or send in a picture to nationalholidaymovement@gmail.com ! #Celebrate #Spooky #Pumpkins #BeHappy