Before my freshman year of college, I don’t think I had ever even heard the word “Halloweekend.” Now, after this past weekend, I’ve heard it many, many times and have also experienced this typical college experience at the University of Connecticut for the first time! Here’s how my first Halloweekend experience went and what I learned from it. And like all the whiteboards I saw on the doors of dorms excitedly announcing what day of Halloweekend it was, I’ll go in chronological order to make it a little easier to follow (although it’s nothing too crazy).
thursday
Me and my friends were planning on going out Thursday night, and we felt very scandalous and risky with the idea because we hadn’t ever gone out on a Thursday night before. We found a frat party, got a ride, and then my friend became sick. This is no shade to her at all because it happens, but we decided to cancel our plans for the night. The first night of Halloweekend did not go according to plans. Instead, I did homework for my psych class. I did get a lot done and go to bed early, though, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise since I needed to rest up for the weekend ahead of me.
friday
During the day on Friday, I went to my classes like normal while simultaneously scrambling to find a ride to the frat party my friends and I wanted to go to that night. We found one, which calmed my nerves, and ate dinner at a dining hall before getting ready. We started getting ready around three hours before we were supposed to be picked up (probably sounds like a typical freshmen thing), but we were just very excited! We took lots of pictures and then waited, and waited, and waited for our ride to pick us up. Spoiler alert — he never did, and we had to find an Uber to take us to the frat. The difficult part was that we had no idea where the frat was that we wanted to go to (probably sounds like another typical freshmen thing) and so we made the poor Uber driver drive around in circles only to drop us off at the wrong frat.
We ended up at SAE, which was a little hot, sweaty, and cramped. Also, our other friends were at the other frat we wanted to go to so we decided to call another Uber (our poor bank accounts) and made it to the right frat. Only took two tries! We met up with our other friends and had a good time dancing and seeing all the creative costumes everyone was wearing. My friends and I were Disney princesses and I noticed lots of other girls were too; Playboy bunnies and “kiss, marry, kill” seemed to be popular, too! We decided to leave early in the morning, and after some chaos, finally made it home. We were all so exhausted so we just went straight to bed.
Saturday
I woke up Saturday morning around 11:30 a.m. and my friends and I went to get brunch at Northwest Dining Hall and make our plans for the day. We had heard of a darty within walking distance so we decided to check it out since none of us had been to a darty before. Because we had already worn our princess costumes (and they were not really wearable anyway because we had gone to a frat in them), my friends and I decided to be bears and cats as a last-minute costume. We walked to the darty and it was fun for maybe five minutes, but then there were sirens and hysteria and so we left and walked back to our dorms. At least we didn’t put too much effort into the last-minute costumes since they were only worn for twenty minutes! Anyway, we got back and decided just to rest and recuperate for a little while. This is when things started going south for me because I started feeling sick (probably got what my friend was sick with Thursday night), so I took a nap and woke up feeling even worse. My friend group decided not to go out that night so I just did my best to study for an exam on Monday and went to bed very early (and very early for Halloweekend).
Sunday
Sunday was a very very boring day, and I don’t even know if I should count it as part of my Halloweekend because all I did was study and rest the entire day. On the bright side, I felt a lot better from Saturday night so I was able to study and prepare for my exam!
what I learned
I think I learned a total of three big lessons from Halloweekend. Some don’t necessarily apply to this one weekend alone but I’ve learned them throughout my weeks here at UConn. One, you get sick a lot at college. Like a lot. And I know it’s not just me. I’ve been sick a total of three times since the beginning of the semester and I have a cough that just won’t go away. And I’m sure it will get worse as the weather starts getting colder. But I know my body will adjust and my immune system will hopefully get stronger.
Two, it’s okay not to be partying all the time. I know girls that went out three or four days this weekend or only one day. And either is perfectly normal. Whatever is best for you is okay. Don’t feel pressured to have to go out if you just want to stay home and watch a scary movie or get ahead on homework. We all have the label of college ‘student’ and that means we’re allowed to prioritize school over partying if that feels right for us.
Three, plans change. And they change a lot in college. One minute, you’re planning on going out, and the next minute you’re taking lecture notes. This is difficult for me because I don’t like when plans change, but it’s part of life, and I have to learn to adjust and try my best to go with the flow however that flow looks like.
Conclusion
All in all, I would say my Halloweekend at UConn was a good experience — it was a mix of partying and costumes, staying in and doing homework, and being exhausted and sick. But it was a good mix nonetheless. And it taught me a lot!