Halloween is a holiday that always loses some of its fun as we get older and more mature, but if you follow some of the guidelines I give you, it doesn’t have to. For the new freshmen, do not think that since you’re in high school now, you are too old to go trick-or-treating. Trust me, you are never too old to go trick-or-treating. Well, scratch that, you are never too old to go trick-or-treating while you are still in high school. If you are 20 years old and in college still trick-or-treating, you are just creepy. But seriously, do not feel embarrassed at all, even if you are a sophomore too, even manly men like me did it ’til then.

If you are going to a Halloween party or any social gathering where you dress up, one of the best ways to make a lasting impression is by getting a small group of friends and dressing in similarly themed costumes. If you are running a little low on creativity and need some brain stimuli, here are a few pretty awesome ideas for a group costume (in my opinion). But, know that I am withholding a few really good ones too because you do not want two groups dressing in the same costumes – that would just be awkward. You could dress as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the South Park children, Super Mario characters, the Avengers, Ghost Busters, or if you are feeling like a white-girl, the Mean Girls plastics. If you don’t think that your group would win best dressed at a party with those outfits, then you’re doing it wrong. But really, try and make it your own and come up with an original idea, because sometimes brainstorming what costumes you will wear can be more fun than actually wearing them.

Now, onto some things that you would do on Halloween if you want it to not be the best time it could possibly be. First off, girls, I am singling out you right now; please, whatever you do as your costume, please, do NOT go as a cat. Now I know that a lot of girls aren’t cats and come up with pretty creative costumes, and for that I applaud you. However, there are a lot of girls, who year after year, just wear all black, draw whiskers on their faces, and call themselves cats. It’s one thing if you actually have a good cat costume – then I won’t care, more power to you – but after witnessing it for two years, the poorly made cat costumes need to be euthanized.

Guys too need to stop the whole going out and scaring people on Halloween night. Scaring little kids isn’t funny and actually, in contrast to the scarer’s opinion, really isn’t, and wasn’t really, ever cool. Scaring me is even less funny so please stop. That also goes for stealing candy from kids; I mean come on, when you were 8, would you be happy if some high schooler stole all of your candy? Probably not, so once again, this was never ever cool, so if you do this, definitely stop.

Perhaps the biggest thing to remember this Halloween is to stay safe and have a good time. The last thing that anybody wants is an injury doing something stupid – a car accident that didn’t have to happen, or even worse, having an empty seat at graduation. So Kadets, whatever you do this Halloween, make it a memorable, safe, and fun one!