The second I woke up I ran down the stairs, excited to rip off another link off of my orange and black paper chain, signifying that we were one day closer to the 31^st. There were 14 links left and we were going costume shopping. The year before I was Belle from Tarzan, and that year, at eight, I couldn’t wait to find the perfect devil costume. My brother and I hurried through breakfast before dragging our mom out the fake-cobweb-covered front door.

Our days centered around Halloween. How many days were left, who we were trick-or-treating with, how much candy we would get, what everyone would be dressed up as. Every year our dad would hook a heigh-filled trailer to the back of his truck and we would pile in with all of our friends, driving around the neighborhood and going from house to house, smiling while holding our pumpkin shaped buckets out expectantly. Just the mere thought of it had us bouncing in our seats.

Fast forward four years and I’m 12. It’s a few days before Halloween and I’m still contemplating trick-or-treating. Maybe I would go, but probably not. I was way too old for it. I mean, at 12 I was pretty much all grown up, right? Wrong, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t feel that way. It was my first year atChapinMiddle School, not to mention my first year ever going to a public school, and I was convinced that if I went trick-or-treating my new classmates would make fun of me for it.

In the end my brother and I both stayed home and my mom picked us up some candy from Bi-Lo. We watched a cheesy old Halloween movie and pretended like it was just so much fun. Every time our doorbell rang and I looked out to see another kid my age or older asking for candy I felt a twinge of regret. I really wanted to be out there dressed up and going door to door, too. I would never admit it, though, because I was 12 and I was too cool for Halloween.

Four more years brings us to the present and I’m 16. I don’t trick-or-treat anymore because I really have no desire to, but that doesn’t mean I don’t celebrate Halloween. Trekking from house to house in the freezing cold that I was seemingly impervious to when I was younger no longer seems as exciting as it did before. Instead I had a couple of friends come over this year and we carved pumpkins, roasted marshmallows, ate candy, and watched movies. It may not seem as essential to the experience that is growing up as trick-or-treating is, but I still had fun. I do think you are eventually too old for trick-or-treating, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate Halloween. Don’t cut yourself out of the fun because you’re “too cool.”