Halloween. Some love it, some hate it. Personally, I used to like Halloween when it was about candy and trick-or-treating, but as I’ve grown older and as it’s become more geared towards horror movies, haunted houses, and overall gore, I’ve grown to not enjoy the holiday whatsoever. We can just say in my household that Christmas starts on Halloween, and it’s the day we begin listening to Christmas music. A few days later, we put up our Christmas decorations (I’m not kidding; Christmas starts VERY early in my family). 

Halloween at Montrose can be, at times, very stressful. Figuring out a costume that, is not only Montrose appropriate, but comfortable for an entire day of classes, creative, and simple to create can be very difficult. This year, I had a few costume crises and a complete costume change thirty minutes before I left for school. However, I am very happy with how my costume, which was Tom Brady, came out.

Another Montrose Halloween tradition is the Haunted Hallway, operated by the sophomore class. Each year, it has a different theme, and last year’s, which happened to be run by my now-junior class, was the thirteenth-floor hotel. Fun fact: we had a fog machine as part of our haunted hallway, and on the first round, it set off the smoke detectors, and the entire A & A had to evacuate. The Medfield Fire Department had to come… yes, the fog machine went away after that. Personally, my job in the haunted hallway was to stand at the end and hand out the candy from a black cauldron. I’ve been at Montrose since seventh grade, so five years thus far, yet I’ve never once been through the haunted hallway, as I’ve… we can say… chickened out every year. As someone who’s never watched a horror movie before, I was quite frightened by the costumes worn by the sophomores in the haunted hallway, especially when I was in eighth grade when the class of 2022 had a haunted asylum theme. This year, I knew it was the year that I’d finally go through… until my varsity field hockey team had an addition of a game… you guessed it… right on Halloween, with an early dismissal that meant I couldn’t go through. However, the game ended up getting canceled, so I was able to go through it after all. The theme was a haunted circus. I actually made it out alive… if anyone couldn’t tell, since I’m currently writing this article. Reflecting on my first time in the haunted hallway, I’ll say that the scariest part was definitely taking the first steps in, but I ended up going out of my comfort zone and had a great, yet heart-pounding experience. Hats off to the amazing sophomores who planned and executed this tradition!

By Kristina Klauzinski ‘24, Co-Sports Editor

24kklauzinski@montroseschool.org