It is Spooky Season! The season of crisp fall breezes coming in that smell like pumpkin spice, horror movies, corn mazes, and scares.

My favorite season of weather is the border between fall and winter, but my favorite holiday season is 110 percent Halloween. I adore all things spooky and scary and I look forward to the month of October every year.

I feel as if my love for Halloween all started when I watched my first horror movie, ‘Jaws’. I was in elementary school when I first got to watch the film and I became obsessed with any horror movie involving sharks. That of course spread into other horror flicks and my obsession just grew.

Once I was old enough to appreciate the true feel for Halloween, I enjoyed the season more and more. I always wanted to make sure that I went to at least one haunted house, one corn maze, and watched as many scary movies as I could.

I was also really into dressing up and my mom always helped make my costume homemade. She is very talented and she would start in September and sew any types of fabric and make it into whatever I wanted to be. She would even make head pieces if needed and do designs on my face with paint.

Something about the season brings me serenity and comfort, like the month of scares and autumn leaves shine a light of joy into me.

This year is a little different; my favorite month has now turned into one of my most stressful and painful months. My classes for school are throwing me everywhere and inside out, I am getting magazine deadlines haunting my dreams, and the month also hosts the birthday of my ‘Gma’ who passed away seven years ago now. Every year it gets a little harder to get through October, but time doesn’t stop for us to process, and if we don’t move on with time, it’ll leave us behind.

I think it’s crazy to acknowledge we have 12 months in a year, and in those 12 months we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, proms, weddings, and giving birth to new lives. Then on December 31 at midnight we offer cheers to “Happy New Year!” and restart the cycle. It’s funny to me how we look forward to these little things and dread other things just to relive it again, and again, and again, until we cross the finish line of life.

This is why I like having the opportunity to write a column once a month, because I can give a little piece of me out into the world in every fourth Wednesday issue of the month. I think that it is important to not only write about the cool and amazing things that happen in our lives but also the real, emotional, and true things that happen. Mainly because life is not all butterflies and rainbows and I certainly will not try to make it seem so.

But it’s spooky season y’all, the season of all things spooky and scary, like ghosts, goblins, vampires, and life; life is just as scary.

I hope that my columns get read by someone who needs that comfort of knowing they are not alone. My goals are to have someone read one of my pieces and feel better, maybe they were having a bad day or a bad week, and then they read my work and have the chance to take a breath. Maybe I can inspire someone else to create a love for Halloween too and make that something they can look forward to. I know that the sunsets in the fall are the best, just in case someone, anyone was wondering. Nothing better than letting nature take away your pain and sorrows and replace it with natural beauty and warmth.

My goal for anyone reading this is to think about their favorite holiday or season and really reflect on the why, why it is your favorite, dive down deep into your soul and connect yourself with your choice. I also hope everyone has a safe Halloween; make good choices, and ring the doorbell of life and say, “Trick or Treat!”

Sarah Lawson is a staff reporter for The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News; she can be reached at slawson@oakdaleleader.com.