Halloween: Then VS Now

Last year I spent Halloween in Shibuya. If you read my previous post you may already know that there were some good points, but it wasn't the same as the U.S. See the previous post here.

The last time I was there I it was 2013 and I dressed up as a power ranger. It was a lot of fun. I made my costume out of pizza boxes, colored tape, a black sharpie, and a paintball helmet. I think I did a pretty good job.

I think each Halloween was special in it's own way. When I was in college, it was a good Halloween if we pregamed with a lot of friends, found a great house party or club to go to with a decent after party/food. Now, I focus on finding a fun costume that matches well with my close friends and drinking enough so I get buzzed, but I can still wake up at a decent time the next day because we have things to do, instead of crushing cover brunch at the dining halls.

Back in college, The Class of 2011 didn't have Uber and Lyft when we were freshman and sophomores. We mainly stayed in the vicinity of UCLA, Westwood, Brentwood, and Sawtelle. These were our stomping grounds. We lived for house parties. We pregamed and only headed to parties at 11:30pm at the earliest. We ate dream fries, Jose Bernstein's, Taco Bell, Kogi, Fat Sals, and Bella Pita. Then responsibilities and priorities hit. Thank god they did. I'm pretty sure I replaced water with light beer at one point.

This year, I was in West Hollywood again after six years. I dressed up as Brock from Pokemon or Takeshi (in Japanese). My friends dressed up as Ash, Misty, and Pikachu. We found a few people who dressed up as Team Rocket and they got into it. I spent Halloween connecting with friends that I haven't seen for over a year. It seems that as we get older, we start cherishing closer relationships with friends instead of trying to do all the events that are out there. Not to say I lost contact with many friends, but work, trips, family, and life gets in the way. Also, funny enough, some friends or acquaintances that I wasn't close to prior to living abroad have become even closer. Life is interesting.

Now that we are older, we can plan events that are further ahead, farther away, and with specific people that we want to spend that time with. Sure there are times that we can plan events for big meet ups and reunions for clubs, organizations, roommates, etc, but those are rarer because it's really challenging to get everyone in one place at once. Props to the maid of honor and best man of each bachelorette/bachelor party. I don't know how you convince everyone to go.

I tried to organize a day for me to meet up with some of my roommates and old fraternity brothers, but I got so busy driving back and forth from Goleta to Los Angeles, that it was really hard. Next time I'll prioritize that as well. It seems that when you go back home, there is never enough time to do everything you want to do, but that's ok. There's always next time. Bottom line; start planning now for then or it won't happen!