All Spooked Out

It’s spooky season.

For all my witchy, vampire-loving, all-black wearing sisters and brothers out there, I see you. It’s time for you to shine (omniscient, more like an eerie half-glow) as the shadows grow and Halloween looms. This month is yours. Take it, love it, embrace it.

I don’t want it.

All Spooked Out

Originally posted in the October 2015 edition of the CU Denver Advocate.

Welcome to the most terrifying month of the year. It’s October, which means the  ghastly, the gory, and the horrifying are about to be unleashed. Get ready for the hollow screams and the eerie cackles. It’d be great if for once, I could be counted out.

At a 2015 Advocate pitch meeting, someone on staff had the brilliant idea of taking someone who is easily terrified and not into the Halloween scene—a wuss, for lack of a better word—to a haunted house or corn maze. All eyes turned toward me as our lovely Editor in Chief Madi Bates said, “Savannah, that’s for you!”

I hate all things scary. Honestly, I just can’t relate to the cultural enjoyment of being frightened. For me, the experience involves severe and crippling anxiety attacks—even watching a horror film puts me under emotional distress, because I fear so badly that my life is in danger. I can’t separate reality from fiction.

Even worse than films are the commercial activities that come around every October. When my high school softball team went to the state tournament, we stopped by a spooky corn maze the night before our big game. Not only was I too overwhelmed to go inside the maze, a character dressed as the Grudge wandered out of the maze and started chasing me around the parking lot. Just me.

I tend to avoid the world of the terrifying as much as possible. And by doing so, I’m allowing those who really enjoy the creepiness of Halloween to enjoy themselves, without my obnoxious complaints and shudders.

It’s absolutely no fun for anyone to hear constant whining from people who can easily remove themselves from a situation they dislike. This basic courtesy should be allotted for the people who woke up on October 1 with sheer excitement.

For those of you out there who, like me, grimace at the idea of zombie crawls and scary movie trailers, consider this. October is a beautiful month, full of autumn colors and crispness. There are pumpkins to carve, candies to indulge on, and creative costumes to plan.

Embrace the lighter side of the month and don’t ruin the rest for the people out there who live for the darkness of October.