The sun sets as fallen leaves scrape the ground on the sharp autumn breeze while monsters, mythological marvels and celebrities roam the campus.

Halloween, the epitome of creativity and imagination, has made its long-anticipated return.

This is a time when anyone can transform into any person, any thing or any entity—even as static cling adorned with socks and dryer sheets or a 20-sided die with adhered numbered triangles.

Innovation has no limits. Impossibilities take a night off.

During Halloween, camaraderie between super heroes and villains is possible; people can be a gory mess without feeling pain, and historic figures can rise from the grave—if only to munch on some pumpkin seeds and coma-inducing sugar quantities.

Halloween is timeless; it ages with you.

From hauling around my giant cauldron from house to house chasing after the best goodies to gathering with friends to celebrate the spirit of Halloween in the late hours of the night, the holiday still carries the same excitement for me from year to year.

No one is too old for Halloween.

Every time I hear a person scoff at the idea of adults partaking in the festivities, my mind goes straight to a memory from years ago when I marveled at a neighborhood grandfather, about 80, carrying his grandson, about 18 months, dressed as Father Time and Baby New Year.

Halloween is like theater. Someone can become a completely different person or object without the months of rehearsal and memorization.

For college students, the toils of sleepless nights balancing work, school and a social life melt away.

Buzzing anxiety toward what the future holds becomes quiet—or at least dialed down with the blast of “Monster Mash” and any tune from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” among heavy laughter and costume compliments.

Unlike other holidays, people don’t have to worry about slaving in the kitchen, finding the best gift, anticipating family drama or looking for perfection.

Halloween is what you make of it, whether you are bearing the cold for the promise of inevitable cavities or staying in to watch “Young Frankenstein” and carve a pumpkin.

Halloween enthusiasts, young and old, do not have to fear ridicule for wearing a cape and having a sense of greatness or putting on a cloak and feeling like a part of Harry Potter’s world.

Obscurity is thrown out the window, and all creatures are equal in the ghoulish eyes of Halloween.

Rachel Rodgers is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or denopinions@gmail.com.