Halloween at the Middle School

This Thursday is Halloween.

And that always makes things interesting in middle school. The students where I work will show up decked out in an interesting assortment of Halloween costumes—some delightfully creative (like the girl who designed her “shadow” that followed her around all day) while others are…well, disturbing.

It always makes me grin to see a kid who is too cool to handle the dead butterfly in science or mess up his hair in Phys Ed transform himself into a cube-shaped Enderman from Minecraft which, according to the general consensus here at school, is no longer “cool” to play.

A few of the students announced today that they’ll be showing up on Thursday in an inflatable dinosaur costume. We don’t get many notable earthquakes here in Southern Arizona, but it might be worth having one just to see these inflated creatures attempt to stuff their swollen bodies under a narrow school desk. Just saying…

I don’t dress up for Halloween, but, if I did, I could see myself dressing as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. It just makes sense since I already work around “little people” all day who act like they know what they are doing but really don’t, so we all feel a little “lost”. Plus, I have a propensity for walking around mumbling, “There’s no place like home” as I muddle through my work day (minus the fancy shiny red shoes).

The day after Halloween will be interesting too. Staff and students will be in a stupor most of the school day (TGIF), recovering from late-night Halloween parties and suffering from sugar-induced hangovers. Faces will show traces of costume-makeup residue that didn’t completely wash off and there is sure to be a few unnatural colors streaked through hair that will take a few washes to bring under submission.

And me?

Well, we don’t have a history of tornadoes here in Southern Arizona either, but I just might keep an eye on the skies for one this week. Any adventure could happen in a middle school.