As fall begins and Halloween inches near, students and teachers at GS celebrate the excitement and think of how they’re going to spend the spooky holiday this year. 
  For years GS students and faculty have been going to Schramm’s Farm for pumpkins and hayrides and also to Halloween stores around the area to create a thrilling costume. Also, for a good scare, students visit Kennywood’s Phantom Fright Night and Pittsburgh’s well-known Scare House.
“I go to a traditional pumpkin patch for pumpkins and gourds, because you need them for your centerpiece” junior Teddy Russell said.
   As the years go on, Halloween costumes change and usually go in line with trending movies, celebrities and even television shows.  Not only are outfits influenced by current events, but several have also modified to become more and more revealing as current clothing styles show more skin. 
   “Outfits are getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller,” Russell said.
   Of course, there will always be the usual masked kids going as scary creatures, presidents or the known Scream character.  Because senior Olivia Berry already looks similar to Katniss Everdeen from the popular movie, The Hunger Games, she plans on dressing up as her this 31st. Other students plan to take different routes with costume choosing and some even continue to be the same character every year.
   “I’m a pirate every year,” Russell said.  “I just add more to the costume every year.”
   Although the big night of Halloween where kids dress up in their elaborate costumes and trick-or-treat is usually the main excitement of October, the activities leading up to it, such as decorating, are also enjoyed.
    “I love to decorate,” biology teacher Mrs. Julie Firmstone said. “I do orange lights all over on my trees. It’s friendly though, not scary.”
   Fellow students also decorate, whether it’s with their families making their homes spook-tastic or coming up with cute ideas on their own. 
   “I dress my cat up like a princess,” Berry said.
   While most teenagers try to cause a mischief and create a memorable Halloween by egging, corning or T.P.-ing homes, other students choose to do other fun activities.  Several carve frightening pumpkins with friends, create haunted houses in their backyards or make pumpkin pies. 
   “I shot my pumpkins with a rifle last year,” Berry said.
   Firmstone’s Halloween activities differ from those of students at GS.  She and her family plan on carving pumpkins, attending a neighborhood party, going to apple orchards while visiting her brothers in New Jersey and taking her kids trick-or-treating.  Firmstone also plans to watch her kids, who are in elementary school, walk through their annual costume parade.
   “It’s so much fun because they get so excited for it,” Firmstone said.  “I get to relive my youth again watching them.”
   This year, students Russell and Berry both plan on going trick-or-treating and wearing well planned costumes. But as high school students, some would say they are much too old.  Both students disagree and believe that Halloween is for everybody as they plan to participate in the evening’s fun festivities and receive tons of candy.
   “I feel that the spirit of Halloween is captured throughout adolescence and into adulthood,” Berry said.  “I think it’s fine as long as they put effort into it and dress up.”