Every year since age three I’ve gone trick-or-treating – yes even this year – and I am almost 18 years old. Should the Halloween celebrations not apply to me and my fellow peers in high school just because of our age? 

As senior Emma Guidry says, “We have a natural inclination to act on our childlike impulses, so it would only make sense for us to want to go trick-or-treating because the magic used to occur so naturally for us. Now it seems like we want to, but some people are not okay with it because they think we are too old.” There is no judgment amongst teenagers against those who go trick-or-treating – the judgment comes mostly from adults. Our parents are the ones who constantly wish to deny how old we’re getting and cry when they imagine us “spreading our wings” and leaving the house. Yet when we wish to cling onto the last bit of our youth just months before being forced into our next chapter of independence – they won’t let us. 

While most of the controversy about teenage trick-or-treating comes from adults, some of them are very supportive, like mother and English teacher Mrs. Sorrell who says, “I think that it’s great that teenagers can have the opportunity to go trick-or-treating. It gives them something fun to do, and they’re staying out of trouble.” She holds the opinion that many teenagers wish all adults would have. Nowadays, there are so many alternative options of what we could be doing on Halloween night that it’s hard to believe that parents would rather these than us simply going door-to-door looking for candy. 

What many teenagers believe is the reason for this controversy is the stigma of being wild and crazy when you’re a teenager. Yes, we can be impulsive and react with our emotions, but we also are in a weird phase between childhood and adulthood where we want the comfort of having some delights of our childhoods that we can still look forward to, even as we grow into young adults.