Today is Halloween as all of you are probably aware. I tend to not care for holidays because their initial meaning is lost upon society. But with Halloween comes a socially exceptable excuse to wear a costume. Sure you could dress up in a costume any day you please, but you'll get a lot of weird looks for it. For those of us not brave enough to do this, Halloween is a perfect time to express yourself via costume. Throughout my childhood, my kind mother put a lot of work into making me custom outfits for trick or treating. One year I was a lego brick (costume made out of cardboard box with holes cut in it where plastic cups where pushed out of and the whole thing coated in spray-paint). When I became a teenager, I did not continue awkwardly trick or treating with little children. Instead I gave out candy at the door while wearing a costume.

When I became an adult, I realized that a lot of traditions, parties, and general fun times where planned by my parents. Away from home, a holiday could pass like a normal day and it was up to me to make it fun. Last year I dressed in my suit and top-hat as the monopoly man. Sadly I realized that very few people on campus wore costumes on Halloween, so it was still a bit awkward despite the holiday. This year I wanted to do the same thing, but my cheap suit had been sold and I had forgotten to bring my top-hat back to college with me. It is a bit depressing that I missed this opportunity to wear a costume.

I did see a single girl at dinner today wearing a costume. It made me a bit happy to see someone else enjoying the opportunity. I think there's an idea that certain things like wearing a costume or enjoying cartoons is considered "immature" or "little kid stuff". People will say things such as "I'm too old for that kind of thing"*. To me this seems to be very flawed. What is "for little kids" is a notion made by society. Just because the majority of society considers an activity to be "for children" does not cause it to lose its enjoyability. Something that children find fun can still be enjoyable as an adult. Water guns and blanket forts ( http://xkcd.com/219/ ) are two examples. Additionally avoiding an activity just because "It's for little kids" seems immature by itself. Does a child sound mature when they say "That's for babies" ( http://youtu.be/rIaVph0JFM4 )? Of course not. They sound just about as mature as person who uses fractions in their age (like seven and a half) in an attempt to sound older.

To sum things up, I am disappointed that I didn't wear a costume. I wore no costume because I forgot it at home, not because costumes are "for little kids", because that's a bad excuse.

*Physical limitations brought about by age are legitimate reasons for using this as a reason to not participate in something.