Who doesn’t love traditions? Well, there are a fair share of people who don’t, but I absolutely love them! Last Tuesday, the GT team got into a friendly pumpkin-carving competition, and I am proud to say I was part of the winning team … woohoo!

Growing up, I remember dressing up to go to school on Halloween, but where I lived there were no such things as trick-or-treating or carving pumpkins. I always looked forward to the end-of-year holidays and Independence month (February), but never Halloween. Over the past seven years, I have started new traditions of my own, like carving pumpkins with my godson, filling up my apartment with pumpkins and fall décor and doing at least one spooky tour in October. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this event listed on our work calendars!

We were divided into four teams, and each team had 25 minutes to carve the perfect pumpkin. The team captains were picked randomly, as were the team members. I joined team captain Katie Skrzek and Francis X. Gallagher, and together we created the scariest pumpkin of the bunch.

I must say, it was a close competition. None of the teams followed the patterns provided by the carving kits. All of the pumpkins were original and very creative. We won by one vote. Phew, super close!

The pumpkins are still being displayed at the office. What do you think we should name ours?

— Yasser Ogando, sales planner