There’s nothing worse than hearing, “Aren’t you a little old to be trick-or-treating?” from your cranky, 82-year-old neighbor when all you want is a freaking Milky-Way.  Some of my greatest childhood memories are of trick-or-treating. From getting enough candy to last until college to dressing up as my favorite Disney princess, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. When I went trick-or-treating last year I realized things weren’t the same at the age of 14.

After middle school, knocking on my neighbors’ doors demanding candy lost its allure. Once I had the power to buy my own king size bag of candy I thought, “What’s the point of trick-or-treating?” I don’t want to put up with people sassing me about my age just to get candy when I can get it myself. Now I’ll admit, I miss dressing up and walking around in the chilly October air with my friends in pursuit of chocolate, but it’s just not as special as it used to be.

Trick-or-treating isn’t the only way to celebrate Halloween. There are parties of course, and my personal favorite, overeating candy while watching horror movies in my basement with friends. Halloween happiness doesn’t have to depend on trick-or-treating, a tradition meant for children. Most adults I know dislike seeing 17-year-olds dressed up as serial killers walking up to their doorway asking for candy. Trick-or-treating is a tradition kids grow out of just like the illusions of Santa some parents partake in during Christmas time. I’m not trying to discourage celebrating holidays, but some traditions change with age.

There’s a line that should be drawn specifying what age is too old to be trick-or-treating, and I choose to draw that line at high school. Even though I’ll miss the childhood excitement, I can’t deny that I’m too old to be trick-or-treating around my neighborhood. So this year, I’ll stick to handing out candy and listening to clichéjokes from toddlers instead of telling them.