Autumn Children In Springtime//October 211th, 2025

 Many years ago, there was no 'Halloween Community', as we now know it. 

There were only us, the children drifting like dry, wayward leaves in a cool breeze, never quite knowing where to land.

We were the children whose friends looked at them strangely when we said our favorite holiday wasn't Christmas. We were the children who were called 'creepy' because we preferred ghost stories to fairy tales. If you were one of these children, one of us, you know.

Me, personally? I was the little girl who cried when Halloween ended and never brightened at the mention of Christmas on the horizon. I was the little girl who pitched the idea of turning the Jack o' Lanterns around, hiding their scary faces, so that they could linger through Thanksgiving. I was the little girl who tried to start a leaf collection and then was devastated when they all turned brown. 

I was the little girl who just wanted Halloween to stay.

I was also the little girl who grew into perhaps a more awkward version of myself as a teenager. I didn't fit in anywhere, with anyone, or so it seemed, and my only solace was waiting for Halloween. It came, and it went. But I never stopped dreaming of it. 

And so I was the girl who sat on her bedroom floor with a free little calendar I'd gotten from Hallmark at New Year's time, constantly counting. Math was my worst subject, but for Halloween, I was diligent. 

I was the girl who sat and calculated the halfway point to Halloween at fourteen years old. 

'Halfway point between April 30th and May 1st', I wrote on both months of my little calendar, silently wishing April 31st were a thing, as it would make it so much easier. 

It doesn't matter now, though. April 30th, May 1st...I see it celebrated on both days, or sometimes the entire week. Last year, even extended to May 2nd as it was a leap year. 

I'm just happy to see it celebrated. 

Those little wayward leaves, lost within the world that wasn't autumn, have come together to form the most beautiful tree. 

And under those branches, Halloween lives eternally.