Halloween and the Inner Child
So Halloween is just around the corner. It's funny, after middle school, I stopped dressing up for Halloween for quite a while. It was just another holiday (despite the non-cancellation of school) where my sister and I insisted that we go to costco and buy gargantuan bags of candy, then somehow find that our family is not home on Halloween, resulting in a windfall of leftover candy for my and my sis. Those bags of candy always had a good mix of fun size Snickers, 3 Musketeers, and Milky Way bars. In the months that followed, the snickers undoubtedly went first, followed by the 3 Musketeers, then eventually, the Milky Ways. Mmm... chocolate. Definitely a regression to childhood chocolaty bliss.
I started dressing up again back in college, around my junior year at NYU. I went all out my junior year, dressing up as Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Went to the NYC Halloween Parade that year... that was a lot of fun. In years following, dressing up has been insanely fun. I place a lot of emphasis on originality. It's bothersome on some level that at Halloween parties, girls just dress up slutty. But then again, that's more than made up for by the fact that I'm a male, and don't mind the girls on Halloween dressing up like that, despite the fact that it's not all that original. Not surpringly, dressing up is yet another regression into childish fantasy bliss.
At the law school, every year we see an interesting combination of costumes. First year, I went as the Monopoly man, but nobody understood the outfit, largely because despite the whiteout white face paint, top hat, cane, and fake mustache, most people thought I was Charlie Chaplin. So last year, I went as something more recognizable, the Count from Sesame Street. This year, some friends and I are going as a crew of 80's cartoon characters. I'm Alvin, from Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Leading to my funny anecdote. The North Dekalb Mall, near Emory, is one of those malls targeting a more African American clientele. So noticing the hip hop style of tall oversized tshirts, I figured a huge red tshirt would make a good Alvin outfit. So I went to footlocker there, dressed in my work clothes of dress pants and a buttondown shirt, and found a 3XL shirt that went down below my knees. I asked the salesman there if 3XL was the largest he had, and he looked at me and said, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" I'm still not sure whether he found it amusing after I told him that it was for a Halloween costume. I dunno, maybe I can pull off the hip hop style?
One thing that sucks about Halloween, is that after this date, everyone at school gets super serious and locks down and works. I'm no exception. The stress increases exponentially after this date. After a night of revelry and reliving your childhood, we go to the opposite extreme of being stressed out semi-adult law students. So wish me luck.
I started dressing up again back in college, around my junior year at NYU. I went all out my junior year, dressing up as Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Went to the NYC Halloween Parade that year... that was a lot of fun. In years following, dressing up has been insanely fun. I place a lot of emphasis on originality. It's bothersome on some level that at Halloween parties, girls just dress up slutty. But then again, that's more than made up for by the fact that I'm a male, and don't mind the girls on Halloween dressing up like that, despite the fact that it's not all that original. Not surpringly, dressing up is yet another regression into childish fantasy bliss.
At the law school, every year we see an interesting combination of costumes. First year, I went as the Monopoly man, but nobody understood the outfit, largely because despite the whiteout white face paint, top hat, cane, and fake mustache, most people thought I was Charlie Chaplin. So last year, I went as something more recognizable, the Count from Sesame Street. This year, some friends and I are going as a crew of 80's cartoon characters. I'm Alvin, from Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Leading to my funny anecdote. The North Dekalb Mall, near Emory, is one of those malls targeting a more African American clientele. So noticing the hip hop style of tall oversized tshirts, I figured a huge red tshirt would make a good Alvin outfit. So I went to footlocker there, dressed in my work clothes of dress pants and a buttondown shirt, and found a 3XL shirt that went down below my knees. I asked the salesman there if 3XL was the largest he had, and he looked at me and said, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" I'm still not sure whether he found it amusing after I told him that it was for a Halloween costume. I dunno, maybe I can pull off the hip hop style?
One thing that sucks about Halloween, is that after this date, everyone at school gets super serious and locks down and works. I'm no exception. The stress increases exponentially after this date. After a night of revelry and reliving your childhood, we go to the opposite extreme of being stressed out semi-adult law students. So wish me luck.
