By Sophia Pan, Co-Editor-in-Chief

It is Oct. 31; night is descending; and I, age 7, am racing from door to door in fruitful search of Halloween candy. Stethoscope whipping in the wind, plastic orange Jack-o-Lantern in hand and my mother hot on my heels, I am filled with bliss.

Thus goes the tale of many a trick-or-treater: weeks of planning the perfect costume, a night of scurrying around the neighborhood with an eye on the prize (the prize being candy, naturally) and an hour of trading treats with friends and stuffing your face with sweets until your stomach starts to ache. And thus goes a tale that cuts short too soon, with many of us stopping our trick-or-treating as early as middle school.

Youth really is wasted on the young — at least when it comes to trick-or-treating. I, like most of my peers, left the trick-or-treating game before I graduated eighth grade. I’ll admit it: the silent, judgment-filled eyes and hushed whispers of “Aren’t you a bit too old to trick-or-treat?” got to me. I shelved my Halloween costumes, rolled up my plans and committed myself to spending Oct. 31 at home, handing out candy when I could have been receiving it.

It shouldn’t be that way. There is no upper age limit to loving candy (especially free candy!). There is no upper age limit to dressing up and running around with friends. And perhaps, most importantly, there is no upper age limit to wanting to have fun.

Nowadays, I find that we, as a young generation of teenagers, are growing up too fast. Freshmen are already planning out their college careers even as they first set foot into high school. We are constantly urged to be more mature and to grow up. It often feels like everyone has their eyes set so far into the future that they no longer see the present. 

It’s easy to forget that we are children sometimes, too. That we are allowed to be children.

It’s fun to feel like a kid again. In times of stress — and as a high school senior in the aftermath of a global pandemic, believe me, I am beyond stressed out — we should be allowed to enjoy things like we used to as kids. I miss when I had the time to relax and just be a kid.

So what if I want to go trick-or-treating? So what if I want to spend my night bartering Almond Joys for Skittles, Twizzlers for Starbursts, jelly beans for Skittles? And so what if I want to loop the neighborhood two more times and cut through that lawn past those trees to hit that house with the king-sized Kit Kats again?

I hope that one day, I, at the ripe old age of 17, will be able to comfortably knock on a door and say, “Trick or treat!” And I hope that one day, I will be met with “What are you dressed up as?” and “Take two!” instead of quiet judgment for my age. That I will be allowed to just be a kid again instead of having to worry about college applications and financial aid and my ever-growing pile of work.

And with Halloween falling on a Sunday this year, what better way to spend your time than to spend it trick-or-treating, for old times’ sake?

Sophia Pan can be reached at [email protected].