Swarthmore (as I’ve mentioned before and will probably mention again) is quite beautiful. One of my favorite times to soak in the campus beauty is during fall, when all the leaves are changing and the campus is getting a little chilly. We also have a ton of delightful events that happen in the fall (the apple pie contest, which I’ve already written about is a personal favorite). Other than that, we have tons of fall happenings and Halloween events, which I love almost as much as I love free apple pie. Two of these favorite are the all the Halloween happenings and the GSC’s annual fire pit night.
In high school, I was never really interested in Halloween. However, being at Swarthmore has expanded not only my intellectual interests but also my personal ones. One of my really good friends at Swat is super into Halloween, so this year, my friends and I all decided to go all out. Since Halloween was on a Thursday this year, there were tons of events on the weekend before and after the actual day of Halloween. The first weekend, my friends and I all had separate costumes (I was Lilly from the children’s book Lilly’s Plastic Purple Purse), and some of my other friends were characters from movies and TV shows. Then, on the actual day of Halloween, my friends dressed up as each other. We decided to do a temporary clothing swap the day before and to each pick out an outfit from our closets for another one of our friends to wear. It was super fun, and a lot of people picked up on our costume, which was even more fun. Finally, on the Saturday after Halloween, most of my friends and I dressed up as characters from the Shrek franchise. I decided I wanted to go as Fiona, which I was quite apprehensive about because I knew I wanted to really commit. In preparation for the costume (which was honestly unintentionally quite scary), I dyed my hair (using temporary wax color) and painted my face a really bright ogre green color. I think my friends (who dressed up as Dragon, Puss in Boots, Fairy Godmother, Donkey, and Shrek) and I certainly scared a few freshmen with our stark face paint.
Another fall event that I’ve loved going to on campus (that’s a little more toned down) is the GSC’s annual fire pit night. Unfortunately, that night, the county banned all fires because we were in a drought, but Swatties love to problem-solve. This year, our firepit night doubled as a pumpkin painting and movie night! We had a ton of tasty fall treats, painted pumpkins, and watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show on a big blow-up screen outside. Initially, we were hoping to have our fire pit running to make smores, but the county-wide fire ban went into effect a few hours before we were planning to light the fire. We thought and thought about what to do until one of my co-workers suggested we buy an indoor s’more machine and just have people make their s’mores inside using that. It was a huge success. Even though we couldn’t have the full outdoor experience, everyone still had a ton of fun!
I love fall! In fact, one of my requirements when picking out a college was that it had to be somewhere that experienced all four seasons, and Swarthmore certainly exceeds my expectations when it comes to fall festivities!
