“I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color.”

– Wednesday Addams, the “Addams Family”

In case you missed it, yesterday was Halloween. As a child and teen and young adult, Halloween was not one of my favorite holidays. It became a favorite once I had my own kids, but before that I did not look forward to Halloween because I have always struggled with deciding on a costume. It gets even worse when I actually have to create the costume–I lack the creative genome. Leading up to Halloween, my anxiety rises as I realize I am costumeless. This year was no different. Thankfully, on Tuesday of this week our oldest son gave me an idea for a costume. Also thankfully, Tricia (I am her husband), is creative, and beginning Wednesday evening and up until 07:50 yesterday morning (10 minutes before students began arriving at school in their costumes), she created my costume. Each September, Tricia asks us (the 4 “kids” she looks after–our 3 children and me) if we need anything for our Halloween costumes. She asks regularly for about a month, and makes it clear that she will not help us at the last minute to create costumes. Then, each October 30th, she helps us all make our costumes. Then she makes it abundantly clear that she will not do this again the next year. We all know she will (I hope she doesn’t read this Weekly Howl). This year, I was Hawaiian Punch, which is a cartoon character that helps sell the sugary drink Hawaiian Punch. As a kid, Hawaiian Punch was a special treat, because our house didn’t typically have such beverages. That’s too bad, because Hawaiian Punch has 100% of your daily Vitamin C needs, and it also has 100% of your weekly need for high fructose corn syrup.

Halloween means different things for people around the world–good, bad, indifferent. In my experience in Sofia, it means the PTO Halloween Party (which was awesome–thank you PTO!), costumes at AAS, and sneaking into the Residential Park for proper trick-or-treating. 

One of my favorite Halloween moments yesterday, was when the Kindergarten students paraded through admin offices showing off their costumes and trick-or-treating at Ms. Zhulieta’s office. Though it might not seem like much in the big picture of education and life, such moments can have a profound effect on a child’s well-being. Special moments, big and small, bring fun to the daily routines of life; they strengthen connections with friends and the School; they create positive memories. 

As a School, we intentionally create moments that are intended to stand out in students’ experiences as positive memories. These include special events, Cultural Trips, field trips, having students lead assemblies, and much more. I know that all families have special moments too, and if you want some easy advice on how to create even more, pick up a copy of The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. 

As we head into another beautiful fall weekend, I hope you and yours have some splendid moments.

“Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

– Unknown

PS: on an unrelated note, Daniel Kilback, AAS’s Technology guru and I, will lead a Parent Coffee titled Online Well Being next Friday, November 8, at 08:30-09:30 in the Rila Community Room. We will discuss ways that parents and the School can support students’ online well being as well as the role of mobile phones in schools. There will be plenty of time for open discussion and Q&A.