Here is one of my favorite memories of one of my favorite people. And, yes, it involves Halloween.
I went to college at Harvard. Freshman year, a girl who lived across the hall from me woke up on Halloween, got dressed up as a scarecrow like it was the most natural thing in the world, and went to class. I had met her before that, but Halloween morning was the moment I knew it was true friendship. I loved that she wasn’t concerned whether dressing up was cool or not cool. I got to Harvard by being acutely aware of other people’s judgments. Ms. Scarecrow showed an impressive level of not giving a shit about what others thought. I aspired to that.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of that scarecrow. I do have a picture from two years later, with our two other roommates. We were a bowl of fruit. I’m the apple. She’s the banana.
Careful observers will notice we have a carrot in our bowl of fruit. We were early adopters of inclusiveness.