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The month of the spooky season is officially here, and with that come the cool weather and, more than anything, the dilemma of what to wear for a Halloween. Whether it is a costume, a Halloween-themed shirt with a festive hat or a costume you have taken the time to DIY, it is officially the time to start thinking about it seriously.

For many years before the pandemic, I would always try my best to come up with the most festive and DIY-able costume I could. However, it wasn’t until after the pandemic that I began to find an infatuation with either throwing on a witch’s hat and calling it my costume or taking the time to go find a Halloween-themed shirt.

However, if you aren’t like me and you are planning on either DIY-ing or purchasing a costume from a store, here are some costumes I have done in the past as well as a subtle reminder for you to start picking and deciding on your Halloween costume.

DIY-ing a costume is always a great decision and something that spans from the early years of our childhood, when we were determined to have the coolest costume ever. There are so many fun and creative ways to create a costume. Personally, what I did was watch YouTube videos to help remind me it was costume time as well as help me know what to do.

This is where I thrived because I was always determined to do something that was super interesting and out of the box — I wanted to look amazing. Some costumes I created were a scuba diver, an M&M and a zombie swimmer. Many of my DIY-ed costumes were made from things I was sure I would have at my house, so I didn’t have to spend too much money. However, they were all super exciting to wear and get creative with.

I wasn’t always this creative, though, and before my creative spurt, I would just go buy some costumes from the store because I wanted to be one of the characters from one of my favorite movies that year. And these costumes were sometimes just as fun and entertaining to pull out and wear around school.

A personal favorite of mine was a Maleficent costume I wore in eighth grade, and it truly was something I never would have been able to recreate as a DIY-ed costume myself. I was fully decked out — from the horns to the makeup look that made me look like I was an actual villain — determined to still let my Halloween spirit thrive and always searching for the best opportunity to be a creative Halloween costume wearer.

However, now that the Halloween season has come, I am less about getting super invested into creating a costume and more about finding a cool shirt to wear for the day so that I am still in the Halloween mood. But I hold no judgment toward people who are still interested in dressing up for the Halloween season and making the most out of Halloween while you are still young and going out.

So if that is you, here is your reminder to get your Halloween costume ready to go for the day coming up very soon. Whether DIY-ing it or buying it from a store, it is time for you to take advantage of the spooky season ahead and get that costume ready to go.

Reach Dominique Lopez at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @caffeinateddee6.