The Shape Shifting Holiday: A Journey Into Confidence
I had a friend in high school whose birthday was on Halloween.
“That’s the devil’s day, you know,” I heard a particularly prickly girl with an unfortunate humped back and upturned nose tell her one day. This girl was often made fun of for her humped back and I rarely if ever added to the making fun of portion of her high school story, but I didn’t deter it either, which I’ve later regretted, but in that particular moment I thought, it is comments like this that get you bullied in the first place, which doesn't make the bullying ok of course, but it did deter my empathy on several occasions for said girl.
The particular friend who she was talking to, who shared her birthday with the “devil’s day” some would say, was actually not that great of a person it turns out, so maybe humped back girl was actually onto something.
Halloween is the one holiday that I look forward to the most. The whole ambience adds something magical, something mystical as the world cycles into death and winter begins its dreadful decent. It's like the world wants to throw one last party as people become the opposite of who they are or maybe they actually become themselves for the very first time.
“I’m going to be Dr. Frank ‘n Furter for Halloween,” I proudly stated to my husband about a month previous. I don’t always get excited about dressing up, but this year I had an homage to pay for Tim Curry died this year and left in his wake a plethora of unusal and memorable characters.
My husband looked at me quizzingly at first. I could tell he was wondering if this was just another wine infused idea that would fade when the sobering realization of morning soon hit, or if I was in fact serious.
Turns out I was serious.
I did my research. Listened to the myriad of ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW tunes that featured Curry. Prepared my costume; prepared the videos that I would post on social media; and then preceded to do research about the actual making of the movie. Did you know that it was a colossal flop and was Curry’s very first taste into cinema? I am so glad he knew of the cult following it would inevitably have before he died….or at the very least we can all hope that he did.
I am never one for gloating or even easily recieving praise for it all makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I can assure you that I did in fact outdo myself. I have included Curry's version of Dr. Frank 'n Furter and my own for your viewing pleasure:
The only thing that could have really made my outfit better was if I could have rocked some platform heels, but knowing my tendency to fall even when barefoot, I wasn’t going to risk another swollen knee or ankle or toe.
I am really kicking myself today that I didn't enter the costume contest. I had people tell me that I should, but the whole competition was based on the amount of applause that you received when you had a moment on the stage. Unfortunately, high school memories came flooding to the forefront of my mind when I thought during the briefest of a minusclr of a moment that I should jump onto that stage in all of my rock'in glory. Remember Elizabeth, the negative part of me thought, when your name was called for whatever team or competition you were involved in at the time, and nare a polite twittering of applause was heard. I really hate being shy sometimes, it really is such a buzz kill.
However, the whole night I did have feelings of being someone else. Curry always embraced whatever character he was playing even if they were strange, unorhodox, or made you feel a certain weird sort of way and you really have to admire someone like that. I do believe I embodied a small portion of Curry's energy during the night and I will really hate when all of that confidence fades away, because I know it inevitably will. But I do have the photographs and the memories of who I was, who I embodied, if only for a moment in time.
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