In John Green’s podcast-turned-book, “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” he reviews “different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale.” Today I’m stealing his format to review the season of fall.
Fall, or autumn, is the season where the days get shorter and colder due to the northern hemisphere tilting away from the sun. With the changing temperatures, trees shed their leaves in preparation for winter. Beyond the climate changes, fall comes with many social traditions. Apple orchards, hot drinks, pumpkin-flavored everything and 1998’s “Practical Magic.”
One of my favorite fall activities is stepping on crunchy leaves. I regularly go out of my way to step on them, the sound is so joyful. I can only enjoy this once a year—it’s ephemeral. Having a season full of whimsical activities makes the days less monotonous as classes get busier and the days get shorter. Fall is often the time seasonal depression begins, which makes a list of fun things to do that much more important. Seasonal depression has got nothing on a night spent watching “Knives Out” and drinking hot apple cider.
While many fall activities are free or cheap, such as a $6 seasonal drink, fall has become hyper-marketed and consumeristic. There are enough fall-themed pajamas, sweatshirts, bags and slippers to clothe the commonwealth of Kentucky. I am a firm believer that any of these things can be used year-round in a holiday-neutral way, but many of them sit in storage, or worse, get thrown away after Thanksgiving. If a ghost sweatshirt or mug that says “hello fall” makes you happy, buy it and use it!
Fall themed decor is fun, but it is not the heart of the season. The special parts of fall lie in the human connections the fun amusements bring. Two years ago, my roommate and I watched “Coraline,” a spooky claymation movie about a girl who finds an alternate dimension in her new house. We didn’t have any special treats or items related to the movie, the joy of the experience was in our commentary and joking throughout.
Apple picking is fun because of who you trudge around an orchard with. My sister’s birthday is in October, and a few years ago she decided to celebrate by bringing everyone to an apple orchard. We picked a variety of apples, some of which I had never heard of. The corn maze offered an intermission from all the fruit and the opportunity to pretend to be scarecrows. We pet a calico cat who wandered over. These parts of the outing are what I captured in pictures that day, but the best parts were getting to know my sister’s future mother-in-law better and seeing who could chuck rotten apples the farthest.
Getting back to the literal weather of fall, it is an unpredictable season. Perhaps the northwest experiences a gradual temperature change, but here in Kentucky, and Illinois, the state I grew up in, does not. Here the mornings are foggy and chilly, then 3 o’clock rolls around and it’s 88 degrees. It is a beautiful time, as all the trees look like they are in different stages of burning, but needing a cardigan only to sweat later is uncomfortable and inconvenient.
I give fall’s weather three stars and I give fall’s traditions four stars.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.
Fall: reviewed
In John Green’s podcast-turned-book, “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” he reviews “different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale.” Today I’m stealing his format to review the season of fall.
Fall, or autumn, is the season where the days get shorter and colder due to the northern hemisphere tilting away from the sun. With the changing temperatures, trees shed their leaves in preparation for winter. Beyond the climate changes, fall comes with many social traditions. Apple orchards, hot drinks, pumpkin-flavored everything and 1998’s “Practical Magic.”
One of my favorite fall activities is stepping on crunchy leaves. I regularly go out of my way to step on them, the sound is so joyful. I can only enjoy this once a year—it’s ephemeral. Having a season full of whimsical activities makes the days less monotonous as classes get busier and the days get shorter. Fall is often the time seasonal depression begins, which makes a list of fun things to do that much more important. Seasonal depression has got nothing on a night spent watching “Knives Out” and drinking hot apple cider.
While many fall activities are free or cheap, such as a $6 seasonal drink, fall has become hyper-marketed and consumeristic. There are enough fall-themed pajamas, sweatshirts, bags and slippers to clothe the commonwealth of Kentucky. I am a firm believer that any of these things can be used year-round in a holiday-neutral way, but many of them sit in storage, or worse, get thrown away after Thanksgiving. If a ghost sweatshirt or mug that says “hello fall” makes you happy, buy it and use it!
Fall themed decor is fun, but it is not the heart of the season. The special parts of fall lie in the human connections the fun amusements bring. Two years ago, my roommate and I watched “Coraline,” a spooky claymation movie about a girl who finds an alternate dimension in her new house. We didn’t have any special treats or items related to the movie, the joy of the experience was in our commentary and joking throughout.
Apple picking is fun because of who you trudge around an orchard with. My sister’s birthday is in October, and a few years ago she decided to celebrate by bringing everyone to an apple orchard. We picked a variety of apples, some of which I had never heard of. The corn maze offered an intermission from all the fruit and the opportunity to pretend to be scarecrows. We pet a calico cat who wandered over. These parts of the outing are what I captured in pictures that day, but the best parts were getting to know my sister’s future mother-in-law better and seeing who could chuck rotten apples the farthest.
Our soft-mindedness about race
Getting back to the literal weather of fall, it is an unpredictable season. Perhaps the northwest experiences a gradual temperature change, but here in Kentucky, and Illinois, the state I grew up in, does not. Here the mornings are foggy and chilly, then 3 o’clock rolls around and it’s 88 degrees. It is a beautiful time, as all the trees look like they are in different stages of burning, but needing a cardigan only to sweat later is uncomfortable and inconvenient.
I give fall’s weather three stars and I give fall’s traditions four stars.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.