Personal Reflection
Halloween is the great masquerade — chaos wrapped in cellophane, laughter stitched with unease. We dress up, get loud, and for one night, the world stops asking us to make sense. The absurdity feels like oxygen. Maybe that’s why we crave it — the freedom to be ridiculous without apology.
But beneath the laughter is an ancient kind of truth. Every costume hides a longing — the wish to slip out of our own skin for a while. To stop performing the version of ourselves we built to survive the daylight. Behind the mask, we can breathe. Pretending becomes its own kind of confession. Because pretending, at least, admits there’s something real we’re running from.
Maybe that’s why Halloween feels honest. It’s not the monsters that scare us — it’s the mirror. It’s knowing that when the mask comes off, the performance doesn’t. The faces we wear every other day just cost more and come without eyeholes.
Reflective Prompt
Who are you when no one’s watching — and would you recognize them if they looked back?
Memoirs of Madness 