This Halloween I’m planning to trick-or-treat with my close friends from school. We’re going to be a big group and I’ve been thinking about it since the school year started. I went to buy my Puss in Boots costume from the movie “Shrek” with my mom and when I told my dad he said, “Son, aren’t you a little too old to be trick-or-treating?,” and I answered, “No! You’re never too old, dad.” Whenever I show him my costume or tell him about my plans, he still likes teasing me about it.

My dad has always tried to raise me to be just like him: keep your hair short, stand up straight and stop trick-or-treating when you’re 16 years old. That kind of worked, except he was never able to get me to stop liking things I’ve liked since I was young.

Whenever I asked my other group of friends if they were going trick-or-treating, they said the same thing as my dad – “too old.” The most they’re doing for Halloween is participating in Trunk-or-Treat for their clubs or sports, which I’m also participating in. Some also just choose to go to parties which, to me, are just places filled with illegal activities a lot of the time.

I feel like the reason I’m excited to trick-or-treat is because the last time I did it, it was probably when I was 13. I’ve been in this country for eight years and the culture in the US is incredibly fascinating to me. Back in my home country, Venezuela, we never celebrated halloween or any kind of spooky holiday. The only times we would really dress up would be during carnival season, which was during February. I guess that’s probably why most of my friends aren’t excited since they’ve been doing it since they were able to walk and probably don’t find joy in it anymore.

The reason I stopped at 13 and haven’t done it again until this year is because it’s hard to find people who want to go with you. My old group became too embarrassed to go, because they think it’s a little weird for a high schooler to be knocking on doors asking for candy. There’s even TikTok users who shame you for trick or treating. I can’t remember his name but this TikTok user made a video with a pitch-changing voice and he said, “if you’re in high school and still trick-or-treating, you should be ashamed of yourself.” 

And I just don’t get it. I think It’s important to embrace your inner child because it heals so many internal struggles and fills voids you didn’t even know you had. For example, I used to really like playing on my Nintendo 3DS when I was young, but I never had enough money to buy games for it. A friend of mine eventually taught me how to hack it, and I had access to all of the games I could ever want and it was awesome. I don’t play on it as much anymore mostly because of homework and my other hobbies, but it’s still nice to have.

I also used to collect pokemon cards. I don’t mean to brag, but I have a massive 60 card pikachu collection. When I started a couple of years ago, there was a card I really wanted called “Rainbow Pikachu Vmax”, an at the time rare, expensive and highly sought after card which used to be worth $300. 

I ended up finding the card at a pokemon convention I went to with my mom. As soon as I saw it, I immediately pulled out my wallet and paid $135 for the card. As you can imagine, my mom was thrilled with my financial choice. Even though looking back I probably should have spent that money more responsibly, it felt nice finally having a card that I never thought I would have owned when I was younger. I pulled tons of packs hoping to find it, and there it is now in my priceless binder.

Doing these things for my past self made me feel very fulfilled. And to me, one of those things is trick-or-treating. Despite the fact that I enjoy it, people still judge me for doing something I like to do.

So the question is, can you be too old to be trick-or-treating? Personally, as teens, I don’t think we are too old, and I don’t think you’re ever too old for anything. I’m probably going to keep doing it until I’m in college, and I’m not going to be doing it alone. I feel like trick-or-treating is way more fun with a group of friends.

I have common sense. Obviously I would find it very weird if a 60 year old man was trick-or-treating with kids that weren’t related to him, but I think it’s fine if the man was with his grandkids or even a group of friends his age and they are all dressed up, that would be awesome even.

Some of you reading this might have kids in the future, and I encourage you to trick or treat with them. Your children won’t be young forever and it’s important that they’re able to have fun with you. In the future, can you imagine telling your kid, “sorry son, I can’t trick-or-treat with you, I’m too old.”

After some time, however, my dad eventually came around to me trick-or-treating, and he actually asked me to buy him a super man costume, which he would totally rock.