I\u2019m not a super outgoing person. Unless I\u2019m with people I\u2019m really comfortable around, it\u2019s hard for me to open up and make a lot of jokes and take risks with what I say; sometimes I worry that I\u2019m a funny person, but that my humor only comes across to really close friends. That\u2019s why Halloween is a special time of year for me. Ironically, it\u2019s the one time where I can show what I\u2019m really like. By being someone else, I can be myself. (Hashtag deep.)<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always aimed for costumes that are, if not hilarious, at least noticeable. I still remember my sixth grade math teacher laughing hysterically at my old lady costume, and a lady in the neighborhood mistaking me for a girl after dressing as a nun one year. Last year, I was Jack Skellington, which involved enlisting my roommate Marnie to cover my face in makeup.<\/p>\n
But my crowning achievement was, and probably always will be, my sophomore year of college, when I dressed up as a wacky wavy inflatable arm-flailing tube man, one of those big obnoxious things they put outside of car dealerships to attract customers. I meant to create the costume myself with only some suggestions from my crafty mom, but she ended up doing most of the work, and it got stressful for her, and I felt terrible. But I like to think the payoff was worth it, as I attracted a lot of attention.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Halloween is so nice for me. I have an excuse to make a spectacle out of myself, which I\u2019m usually too nervous to do. On the weekend of Halloween, I can go to a party, talk to strangers about our costumes, and move on without any real fear of what they think of me. That weekend sophomore year, I took so many pictures with random strangers, and some<\/em> of them have to have ended up on Facebook. I dream of finding them one day.<\/p>\n This year, I thought about what I could be for a whole month leading up to Halloween. Last year, there was no chance my costume would live up to the standard set the previous year, so I\u2019d picked Jack Skellington, going for impressive in a different way: through makeup. Generally, Halloween in college isn\u2019t treated very seriously; people mostly put on a half-assed costume and go drink somewhere. There\u2019s certainly a charm to that, but I\u2019ve always found it fun to go all out in college. It defies expectations.<\/p>\n But this year, I couldn\u2019t really think of anything impressive. I think I\u2019m just going to end up going as Steve from Blue\u2019s Clues<\/em>, since my friend has a handy green striped shirt, and I have the same general characteristics as Steve (white, skinny, short brown hair). No makeup, no hastily assembled materials. Hey, at least it\u2019ll be cheap, but I\u2019m still a little sad I\u2019m not going all out with something spectacular for my last Halloween in college.<\/p>\n Oh well. I still have my 20s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m not a super outgoing person. Unless I\u2019m with people I\u2019m really comfortable around, it\u2019s hard for me to open up and make a lot of jokes and take risks with what I say; sometimes I worry that I\u2019m a funny person, but that my humor only comes across to really close friends. That\u2019s why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2178,"featured_media":7767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7768,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766\/revisions\/7768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}