Thoughts On A Calendar Driven Society//October 53rd, 2023

Something I find interesting, as we head into the "holiday" season, is how society in general tends to view Valentine's Day as some sort of manufactured obligation. All through January and early February, you just hear constantly about how the things meant to be expressed on February 14th, should be expressed freely any other day of the year.

And yes, despite the fact that Valentine's Day is and always has been my second favorite holiday, it's a valid point. No calendar date should dictate when we show love and appreciation to anyone in our lives. It should just simply be done.

Something I've come to notice, though, probably heavily due to working in retail as long as I have, is that, despite their insistence on celebrating, people treat the holidays like some sort of awful obligation. This time of year brings out the worst in people rather than the best. And it just leaves me wondering, why do it, then?

I do understand the importance of tradition, to an extent. A big reason I'm so indifferent toward non-Halloween holidays as an adult is that my beloved traditions fell apart and it just makes me sad to remember them and what once was. However, when it gets to the point that tradition just feels like a miserable chore, perhaps it's time to just take a step back and ask ourselves, Why am I doing this? What am I really getting out of it?

Every single thing you can do on Thanksgiving or Christmas, you can do on any other day of the year. (Halloween is truly the only day where the main traditions, such as trick-or-treating and certain other events, actually can't be done on, say, a random Tuesday night in June.) How is forcing oneself to celebrate these holidays, any different than what is done on Valentine's Day, that seems to be so frowned upon by society? Sure, not everyone has a significant other. But not everyone has family they feel safe with, either, or a way to get to their family. Or money to spend on gifts or elaborate meals. Valentine's Day is often called "Single Awareness Day" by the people who don't enjoy it, but for some, the holidays in general are a time when we're reminded of loneliness, or stressed to our absolute limits. How is it, at the end of the day, really any different?

I just simply don't believe there's any real point in doing something out of obligation, if it's not making you happy. That's why I, ultimately, gave it up, and chose to focus my energy on the holiday that does make me happy and brings joy and meaning to my life. Sure, I get sad sometimes that Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter isn't the same as it was when I enjoyed it more. But the hard truth of it is, those days are gone, and trying to force myself to enjoy it now is pointless and was only making me more miserable in the long run. I don't have to feel a certain way because of a calendar date, just as I don't have to stop feeling a certain way because of one.

It may sound silly to say, but sometimes I truly believe I've found the secret to life, and it's very simply, Do what makes you happy and don't let anyone or anything control you.

Maybe it took me awhile to realize it, but a calendar is not some all-powerful being that can strike you down for disagreeing with it. Any day can be anything you want it to be...and no day has to be what you don't desire it to be, either. There's no point to living a calendar-driven life, if that's not where your heart is. It's unhealthy to let anything dictate your life.

Stay spooky, my friends.

The Long Way Back//October 32nd, 2023

Every year I talk about November 1st...it's such a confusing day. It makes me feel so many emotions all at once. Mournful, depressed, angry...It's like a slap in the face shoving us into a new month, forcing us to forget what came just hours before. Last year, I did have somewhat of an epiphany regarding the month of November as a whole, and while I do my best to keep my own past words in mind, that doesn't make today any easier. Or easy to explain, for that matter. I suppose I should speak from my heart. Today I feel detached from reality, as if I don't really exist. Like there is no longer a place in the world for me. Just yesterday everything I loved made sense, and was loved and revered by everyone else as well. I felt like I fit. But now, today, I see those same things being quickly shoved away. Less than twenty-four hours after trick-or-treating time began, it's all being swept under the rug. The season culminated and the world is no longer a place I recog

The Spooky Community Has No Entrance Fee//October 288th, 2023

Something I’ve been seeing a lot this year around the Halloween community, possibly more than any other year, has been talk of consumerism, how much money spent on Halloween is too much, whether collecting is really that important or if it’s somehow required to truly be a part of the community, etc. I’m in no way trying to copy anyone else who’s already spoken on this subject, but I thought I would chime in and share my thoughts, as it is something I definitely think about. Now, I’ve always been relatively fortunate when it comes to how much money I have to spend on Halloween goodies. As a child, I often received money for my birthday, September 8th, at the height of the shopping season, at least as I knew it back then. No, it wasn’t enough to collect the way I do now, but it was enough to make me happy, and you also could get a lot more for a lot less back then. I didn’t necessarily stop to think about my “hauls”, but I knew even at a young age that there was nothing I’d rather be sp

Here’s Where The Story Ends//October 337th, 2020

Everyone has moments in their life when they feel like giving up. That feeling of “This is never going to happen, so why keep trying?” Sometimes it relates to a thing that would be trivial to anyone else, sometimes it’s about something more life-altering. But, we’ve all been there. I have moments of discouragement with this blog. Times I’ve told myself, “No one cares”, or “No one will read this”, etc., but I continue on, for the joy of it. And sometimes, something amazing happens. If you haven’t read my previous post, Have You Seen This Pumpkin? , I would strongly suggest doing so before continuing on with this story. The short version is, I saw a pumpkin in someone’s window when I was twelve years old, and have spent the last twenty-one years trying to find it for myself. When I published that post, I wasn’t expecting much of a response. I was really just hoping to hear someone say, “Yes, my family had this pumpkin when I was a kid!” Or “I once saw this in a neighbor’s window while

Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

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