![]() By Graham "GSM" Matthews This weekly blog will document my firsthand experiences as a student at Endicott College. Additionally, I will attempt to offer advice to fellow college students or those looking to attend college down the line. Without a doubt, Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. It has been for as long as I can remember. Christmas clocks in at a close second, but nothing beats the awesomeness of Halloween. It is the one night of the year that you can dress up and be whoever (or whatever) you want to be. It is a day filled with fun, surprises, tricks and treats. Granted, at the age of 18, I won't be going out trick or treating (especially since I am in college, that would be weird), but that doesn't mean I won't be having fun come Halloween night. As I have expressed in past posts, I am not one to attend parties often. Actually, I could probably count how many parties I have attended in my entire life on one hand (family parties and stuff of that nature don't count). I just tend not to have much fun as others do at social gathers, especially considering the fact I am straightedge. I would have enjoy my own personal privacy than to go with others, but my introversion hasn't stopped me from going out trick of treating in the past. Oddly enough, I have many more fond memories of Halloween than I do of Christmas and other holidays, which is probably why it is among my favorite days of the year. When I was 11-years-old, I was captivated by the classic Halloweenteen movies. I mean, who wouldn't it? It is a cult classic and is one of Disney's greatest creations. I loved the movies when I was younger, and that didn't change when I entered middle school. I dressed up as a warlock that year for Halloween because I loved the villain of "Halloweentown 2: Kalabar's Revenge" (Kal, I believe, was his name), even though it was hard to find a costume for being a warlock. I just ended up wearing a cape and a crown instead (that is what he wore in the movie) and I loved it so much that I wore it the following year as well. It would be the only time that I would wear the same costume two years in a row for Halloween.
In 2008, I was just starting to become a wrestling fan. While my little brother went out as Jeff Hardy for Halloween (he dyed his hair a different color, wore a jersey and carried around a Jakks Pacific World Tag Team Championship belt), I found a prisoner's costume. I had always wanted to be a prisoner for Halloween, and I finally got my chance in 2008. It wasn't your typical black and white-stripped costume, but rather all orange. It reminded me of the attire Abyss once wore, even though the costume I wore was way too small on me. I wore it out anyway to trick or treating and ended up getting a nasty scar on my ankle when I tripped upon a wire in someone's front year (hey, it was dark, don't blame me). Halloween was on a Friday that year, so I stayed out with my friends all night. I brought them back to my house and watched the episode of SmackDown that aired that night back on DVR. The following year, I wanted to be a referee. I am not exactly sure why, but it probably had to due with me being a massive wrestling fan. I had the whole outfit ready and everything (my dad knew someone who owned used referee attire, so we saved money by not going out and having to buy one), but mere days before Halloween, I came down with a terrible sickness that we would later conclude was the Swine flu. Remember the Swine flu? It was one of the worst sicknesses I have ever had, and it was getting around like crazy in the latter half of 2009. I came down with the sickness on the eve of Halloween while at a football game and felt tremendously terrible the next day. Thus, that Halloween was ruined. Thankfully, I was able to go out as a referee for Halloween in 2010. I saw a blind referee costume in a store, so I bought that but didn't use the cane or glasses apart of my get-up. I went out trick-or-treating with a handful of good friends from a town I used to live in and had an absolute blast. If I recall correctly, Kofi Kingston made a special appearance on "Ghost Hunters" that night, so I recorded that and watched it when I got back home while eating my Halloween candy. I went out trick-or-treating one final time in 2011 with the same kids from the year prior. Except this time I had even more fun, which I thought was impossible. I ran into a few people I hadn't seen in years, so that was pretty cool. I didn't put much effort into finding a costume that year, especially since a massive snow storm (yes, in late October) happened days before Halloween, so I went out as a vampire. I was bumming that I wasn't going to be able to watch Raw live that night featuring The Muppets, but going out trick-or-treating that year was most definitely worth it. As a senior in high school, I didn't go out trick-or-treating, as I deemed myself too old for it. That was in addition to the fact that I had was no longer in touch with the kids I went out in prior years, so I didn't really want to go out that year anyway. This was around the time that Hurricane Sandy happened and I had just returned home (yay for electricity!) that day, so I didn't feel like leaving. I had the house to myself for most of the night and with no trick-or-treaters coming to the door (we moved to a rural neighborhood), I watched WWE Main Event live for the first time ever and watched "Ghostbusters" (one of my favorite movies of all time) that night with no school the next day. All in all, it was a pretty successful Halloween. I am extremely fortunate that my college is here in Beverly, as it is incredibly close to Salem, the town with a rich history of witches. If you have ever seen "Hocus Pocus" or "The Crucible", you would know what I am talking about. I visited Salem a few weeks ago during Parent's Weekend and was blown away by how cool it is. Unfortunately, freshmen aren't allowed to have cars on campus, so I won't be traveling to Salem on Halloween night this year, but possibly next year. Instead, I will be giving out candy to trick-or-treaters who come right to our dorm door (I don't even have to leave the room, how awesome is that?) along with watching an episode of TNA Impact Wrestling. Over the next few days, I will be catching up on all my favorite Halloween movies, including "Halloweentown", "Ghostbusters" and other films. I actually just watched the remake of "Friday the 13th" this past Friday night, which was actually pretty good. Halloween is also the kick-off of the holidays in the final few months of the year, also including Thanksgiving (for Americans, at least) and Christmas. It is hard to put into words how hyped I am for Halloween next week, but to those who do end up going out trick-or-treating or partying, stay safe and have as fun of a time as I plan on having! |
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