This year, Halloween brought an extra treat for Flint Hill Huskies: a four-day weekend! With parent-teacher conferences scheduled for the Thursday of Halloween and the Friday after, students had the perfect chance to enjoy an extended break. After discussing this with a few peers, I discovered the many ways they celebrated and what they did with their extra time off. 

“Honestly, the four-day weekend was amazing. I went to Fields of Fear with my friends on Thursday and stayed out late without worrying about school the next day,” says senior Gabby McNeal after being asked what her favorite weekend day was.

Junior Jules Mcarthy says, “I got to see my friends all four days in a row, and it was nice having the day of Halloween off because I could truly enjoy it without having to worry about homework or waking up early to come to school the next day. I was also able to show my French exchange student one of my favorite aspects of American holiday culture by bringing her to Halloween parties over the weekend.”

“Because we had four days off, I was able to go down to Virginia Tech to look at the school and visit some of my friends. It was a really great time- I wish we had Halloween off every year!” said senior PJ Lyons. 

While some Huskies were able to enjoy Halloween parties and festive activities, many others revealed to me that a large part of their break was spent on finalizing and perfecting college applications before the November 1st deadline. Senior Tomas Dasek says, “I got to enjoy part of the time off, but I wanted to make sure all my applications were ready to be sent out because this a big deadline for many of us.” 

“I had my SAT on Saturday morning, so I was pretty stressed out until Saturday night when I was finally able to relax and actually enjoy Halloween weekend.”  says senior Ayan Chowdhury. 

I talked to some faculty members as I was curious to hear their perspectives on the four-day weekend, which was just a regular weekend for them due to parent-teacher conferences. Catherine Huber, Upper School Digital Arts Teacher, said, “Even though the teachers didn’t get the same break as the students, meeting the parents was still very nice. Regarding my family, I spent time with my younger son, who chose to be mustard for Halloween!” 

“Parent-teacher conferences are always really busy and tiring, but I also really enjoy getting to meet students’ parents, so I still have fun talking to them. These talks also help me better understand my students through getting to know their families,” says Virgnia Cady, Upper School History and Social Sciences Teacher.  

With college applications, costumes, haunted houses, and parent-teacher conferences, everyone at Flint Hill made the most of the long weekend. An extended break allowed students to celebrate Halloween with a little extra freedom.