You are the best Halloween Costume. Period.
It’s that time of the year again! It’s Spooky Season! Where pumpkin-spiced lattes flow, Halloweentown is streamed at record numbers, and people spend weeks planning their costumes for the party. It’s a fun time as we try to hold off Thanksgiving, and even Christmas, to give Halloween and the sugar overload that follows its time in the spotlight.
The costume part of Halloween always leads to some amazing creativity – or anxiety if it sneaks up on you and you have to go as a cowboy for the third straight year. There are breathtaking costumes each year popping up on social media and walking the streets of Charleston – from Ted Lasso to zombies to the good ole classic ghost or Scream mask. It’s pretty amazing how good at Halloween people are – I am not one of those but I very much appreciate those who are. And I have been thinking about why people love Halloween so much. Outside of the obvious endless supply of Almond Joys or whatever your candy of choice is, of course. I think that people love to dress up and pretend that they’re someone else for a little bit. For one day, you get to be unrecognizable or play dress up like when we were kids. You can put on make up, a mask, a whole regalia of clothes that you normally wouldn’t be caught dead in, and no one cares – heck, it’s even encouraged. And that’s a super important thing to have every once in a while. It allows people to show some flair and mojo that they normally wouldn’t because of either a nervousness, self-esteem issues, or simply because it’s super goofy. And I really like that people who normally wouldn’t command a room at a party have an opportunity to show off.
But this does bring me to the point I’m trying to make and heads up, it’s pretty corny…while it’s super fun to pretend to be someone else for a day, it’s also so important to remember that the best “costume” to be is simply yourself! Being you is the best person to be. Not Ted Lasso, although what a freakin’ legend he is, not Scream or Michael Myers, it’s just you! This is kind of like last week’s “Weekend Thoughts” but with Halloween I thought it was appropriate – and there’s no such thing as too much gassing people up. Instilling self-confidence is pretty darn great. We obsess about who we are going to dress up as for October 31st for a month or longer and go through painstaking effort to make it elaborate and detailed, etc etc. And it leads to an incredible night of Trick or Treating and parties. And it is that. It is a truly incredible and fun night. Being someone else for an evening of shenanigans is a blast but being you is something that you GET to do every single day – and honest to God, it’s the best version of you.
It’s INCREDIBLY important to remember that you are the best costume. And the amazing thing is you get to dress up like that for 364 days in the year. How awesome is that?