Fall will officially begin on the 23rd of this month. While I don’t look forward to the shorter days or colder temperatures, I love the season. The trees take on vibrant colors, the leaves get all crunchy, the holidays are top-tier, and early rollouts of hot chocolate or pumpkin spice make this season something I enjoy with all my heart. But, I also accept that we simply aren’t there yet.
It is, at the time of this publication, Sept. 21, or 40 days until Halloween. I look outside my window and I see that the trees still have all their leaves, without a hint of orange on those branches. Yet still, friends of mine are talking about watching Halloween movies, adopting the aesthetic of ghosts and skeletons, or otherwise wheeling out the fall dorm decorations.
To adopt the autumn aesthetic is each person’s own choice, but I’m not quite ready to be over with summer as long as we’re still reaching temperatures in the mid-80s and clear skies. Maybe people just don’t like summer, but in my view, there has to be some other reasons why people would adopt an early fall.
First, it could be that we all need a way to cope with the start of school. Being a whole month into the fall semester, people could just want to feel like time is moving forward in order to reach the more fun parts of the semester. Second, it’s more than a little likely that brands are manipulating you into buying their pumpkin flavors and incorporating some orange into your outfit – no judgment there, we’re only human after all. It’s also the case that some people just expect the fall to be here already, and depending on where you’re from, that just might be the case. If you’re from further north, chances are when you’re next visiting family and friends, you’ll be donning a sweatshirt and ditching the shorts. It’s understandable, then, to expect the leaf piles and chilly winds to greet you upon your return to campus.
Though what I find most important is that this early autumn excitement actually exposes a lack of creativity in people when it comes to enjoying the dull parts of the year. We could’ve ushered in the Labor Day earlier in the month, or prepared for World Rhino Day (on Sept. 22). What holidays do we look forward to if we let Halloween not just mentally dominate our idea of October, but of September too? When there are so many other holidays to acknowledge and celebrate, why do we need to wheel out the pumpkins and hay bales?
I propose a solution to the root issue at hand: We should simply enjoy the time of year we’re in. It’s not like we can’t buy our own candy and dress up in fun costumes for the recently passed Batman Day (on Sept. 16) or the upcoming World Animal Day (Oct. 4)! It should be said that in our anticipation of Halloween, we miss unappreciated gems like National Chocolate Milk Day (Sept. 27), which I think we all agree that we would be better off celebrating than letting it be forgotten. I’d also advise us to enjoy the warm weather while it’s still here – take some trips to the beach, if only because the summer is infinitely better than the winters here in Coastal Virginia.
