Since Halloween is just around the corner, everything is changing to adjust to its eerie mood. Devoted parents are taking out the decorations that have been gathering dust in the attic to display in front of the house to hopefully make the neighbors jealous, shops are hanging the fake spiderwebs and brands are coming out with their Halloween-themed merchandise. 

Some of us, however, have only been dreading this time of the year. This period where it is said that spirits come out and you are most likely to encounter the lost soul of your great grandfather asking for revenge on his long dead enemy. 

Some of us are weak-hearted and cannot handle any spooks. 

Are you one of them? Are you wondering how you will be able to survive another Halloween without having a heart attack? 

If so, do not worry, I have your back.

One obvious solution to your dilemma is, of course, staying at home. It cannot get easier than that.

Come to think of it, doesn’t staying at home simply just solve all of our problems? No more awkward conversations with our teachers or having to deal with the scorching heat of Texas. 

Sadly, since most of us are responsible teenagers who are daily dragged from our beds early in the morning, this solution does not apply. 

But fear not, I have got you covered with plenty other suggestions to ultimately survive the Halloween period.

One of the most dreaded parts of scary movies are the barbarous, corrupt and atrocious jump scares (I definitely didn’t search up the synonym of bad on thesaurus). But believe it or not, people enjoy bringing them to life and find it fun to scare their fellow friends. 

They enjoy dressing up, wearing masks and jumping at people out of nowhere to get a scream out of them. So my advice to you is to always advance with caution and never let your guard down (you never know when a masked figure will leap out of the corner.)

When doing so, make sure that you are not too obvious about it. If you get caught and your identity as a scaredy cat is revealed, you will become the target of every scary prank and your embarrassing reactions will be plastered all over social media. 

Spooky movies are for sure not your cup of tea, however, at times you may become curious as to what the hype is all about, so you decide to watch a scary movie or join your parents on their annual spooky movie Saturday night. You will have to understand, nonetheless, that you will be watching at your own risk (lifelong trauma or unexpected heart attacks may occur). And just to be cautious, make sure to have the company of a trusted friend or relative that will be the victim  of your screams and unexpected need to grasp onto something as if your life depends on it.

Another dreaded part of Halloween are the haunted houses. 

Long gone are the days where you could only dress up as whatever your mom could muster up out of her DIY skills, knock at strangers’ houses and get candy in exchange. Now, in order to fit in, you have to accompany your friends to haunted houses and Halloween parties. 

To remedy this issue, try to convince your friends that you do not want to trouble the monsters in the haunted house since your own face is too scary to handle. 

Not only will you be labeled as weird, but you will also lose most of your friends, which is totally what we want since no friends means no invitations to scary Halloween events!

Now that you are armed and ready to live through Halloween, you can rest easy.