With Halloween quickly approaching, the age-old question inevitably presents itself yet another year: are high schoolers too old to trick-or-treat?

To say that high school-age kids are too old to trick-or-treat is like saying that we’re too old to ride a bike, go to Chuck-E-Cheese, or wear Pull-Ups to sleep just to be safe. (A little added security never killed anyone.) Age is nothing but a number, and to let a simple quantification of time hold us back from trick-or-treating is a disservice to society.

“Is it a little awkward knowing that you’re a decade older than most of the kids out there?” asked senior Hal O. Wein. “Absolutely. But I would go to the ends of the earth to get one last bite of Kit-Kat.”

And Hal isn’t the only one. Halloween night presents high schoolers the perfect opportunity to scavenge for seasonal treats. And yes, those are the same treats that you can get at the grocery store year-round for under five dollars.

“For me, it’s all about the chocolate,” offered sophomore Candee Barr. “Where else can you get your hands on a Snickers bar these days? I mean other than grocery stores, gas stations, checkout lines, and vending machines.”

Others enjoy trick-or-treating more for the experience itself than the bag of delectables that often go preserved until the middle of January. High schoolers display their creative flair in the form of costumes all over the town on October 31. Junior Frank N. Stein still beams about last year’s ghoulish getup.

“So like, I wore a black sweatshirt with jeans around with my friends. But I had this mask on so it was all good,” he explained.

Fresh, exciting costumes like Frank’s often lead to fabled high school costume parties. While young freshmen conjure up images of Halloween bashes of “Project X” proportions in their little heads, upperclassmen like Ray Jerr get to live the dream.

“Halloween was on a Thursday last year,” he said. “But my buddy had like nine people over on November 2 to celebrate. It was pretty sweet.”

Some Libertyville students prefer to bypass trick-or-treating in favor of other celebrated fall activities, like visiting a haunted house, finding their way out of a corn maze, or sampling some of fall’s best pumpkin-flavored snacks.

“I can’t get enough of the pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks,” said Avery Gurl.

However high schoolers spend their Halloween this year, there is no inappropriate way to do it, even though many believe that trick-or-treating in particular has an age restriction. Sure, you may be bigger than the adults handing you your candy. Sure, your werewolf costume may be frighteningly realistic with authentic chest and back hair. But at the end of the day, this is a chance for high schoolers to walk around in uncomfortably cold conditions and earn copious amounts of candy that will eventually wind up in the garbage. And opportunities like that shouldn’t be passed up.

Freshman Jack O’Lanturn said it best: “There’s no better way to appreciate fall than by thoroughly intimidating every small child on the block.”

**Whether you choose to trick-or-treat or not, be safe this Halloween. And remember, if all other plans fall through, you can always spend the night watching a “Halloweentown” marathon on Disney Channel.**