Halloween is the time of year when little girls and boys dress up in their favorite costumes and parade the streets in search of the best candy. Once you get to college, however, the tradition changes completely, especially in the Greek community. Once you join a sorority (or fraternity) at USC, this is the schedule you’re likely to experience in the days leading up to and on Halloween:

Monday: 

Hallo-week is finally here! Your initial excitement is interrupted by the realization that you still have to find not one, but five, costumes. Panic starts to set in. Good thing you have your trusty AmEx. After hours of unsuccessfully perusing Pinterest for costume ideas, you decide to give up and wing it with outfits from past mixers and exchanges. 

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Tuesday: 

Activities officially commence tonight. Your social chair tells you about an off-campus Halloween party in Hollywood, so you and your friends decide to check it out. At the venue, you hardly recognize most of the people there (classic GDIs overrunning the place). Amidst the sea of awkwardly grinding couples, you spot someone wearing the same Marilyn Monroe costume as you. Bitch. After trying, and failing, to make small talk with a firefighter, policeman and Superman, you and your friends make your way over to the bar in search of something to make the event more bearable. You chat up the bartender and he’s being very generous with his drink portions. After two mixed drinks and three (maybe four?) shots, Superman comes back and he’s definitely a lot cuter than you remember. Was he this funny before too? The two of you head over to the dance floor and…

Wednesday: 

You wake up to your alarm blaring. It’s 10:37. You had class at nine. You have a massive headache and can’t remember how you got home last night (let alone most of the events following your arrival at the venue). You decide to skip the rest of your classes to recover and recharge for the night ahead. Tonight is another off-campus event hosted by a different event planner. After a day consisting of re-watching season 4 of Gilmore Girls and ordering Urth Caffe delivery, you finally leave your bed to start getting ready. You and your big decide to dress up as Thing 1 and Thing 2, because nothing says “I’m in a sorority and I love my big” like matching costumes from a Dr. Seuss book. After pregaming, you head over and board the buses. At the venue, events play out in a similar fashion as the night before and you’re not entirely sure why you were under the illusion that it would be more fun. You leave on the first bus back and treat yourself to a breakfast sandwich from Spudnuts before heading home.

Thursday:

After last night’s letdown, you consider staying in tonight to avoid the same disappointment. Today’s a new day though, amirite? You and your friends dress up in your matching Spice Girls costumes and take tons of pictures in hopes of one actually being Insta-worthy. You head out to the Row and actually have a good time dancing at all the frats. After the parties get shut down at midnight, you and a friend head to the 9-0 to continue your shenanigans. By the time last call rolls around, your tongue is blue from one too many AMFs. You head to Panda Express, but spot the firefighter from Tuesday in line, this time wearing a cowboy outfit. You go to Taco Bell instead. Drunchies ensue. You Instagram one of the pictures from earlier. Overall, you label it a successful night.

Friday:

It’s finally Halloween #tgod, you don’t know how much more partying your body can take. In an effort to detox, you decide to workout (a.k.a. change into workout clothes and go to Starbucks for a skinny vanilla latte). On your way back, you spot Cinderella leaving the Row with neither glass slipper in sight. Talk about a royal walk of shame. Your faith in Greek life has been slightly reaffirmed after last night, and you’re excited to see what tonight has in store. One of the frats is having their fall register and everyone’s going all out with their costumes. You arrive at the party and spot a flapper on her knees on the front lawn, leading to a panicked moment of déjà vu. You give a sigh of relief when you realize she’s just bending down to adjust her fishnets. Inside the walls, girls in all different forms of lingerie are dancing on platforms. You feel slightly underdressed in your Little Red Riding Hood getup, but by the end of the night, the red hood is nowhere to be seen. You head back, exhausted, both from dancing and pushing your way through mounds of underdressed girls. Come to think of it, were there even guys at that party?

Saturday:

WAKE UP IT’S GAMEDA… oh wait it’s an away game this weekend. Relief sweeps over your body when you realize you don’t have to start drinking lukewarm champagne at a tailgate in an hour. You check Facebook to find your friend has already uploaded pictures to her “Turn Up or Transfer” album. Untag. Untag. Oh my god, untag. Soon enough, nighttime rolls around and you’re still wearing the pajamas you woke up in. At the risk of having a serious case of FOMO, you hardcore rally and force yourself to end the week with a bang. You down a mixed drink and head out in a makeshift Ballerina costume pulled together from your roommates’ respective closets. However, just as luck would have it, DPS is already patrolling the length of 28th St. by the time you arrive, shutting down every party along the way. You’re surprised they’re aren’t handing out decorative tombstones with the inscription “RIP Greek Life” to every fraternity. You stop by the sorority house to find a number of your intoxicated sisters rifling through the fridge and cabinets. The walk back to your apartment seems unbearable so you call an Uber to drive you.

Sunday:

Well congrats, you officially made it through a full week of Halloween and you’re still alive. Through the highs and the lows, you now know what it means to endure five straight days of costumes, drinking, and partying. So now that it’s over you can focus on schoolwork and getting some beauty sleep, right? LOL JK, you’re lucky enough to be in a sorority at USC, so you get to go through this same routine (minus the spooky themes and decorations) all over again next week. 

Contact Staff Reporter Cassidy here or follow her on Twitter here.