Welcome to fall! After an excruciatingly hot summer, fall has been waiting to help us cool off. Throughout this article, you may sense my tenderness for the fall season. Many of you may echo my sentiments about fall being the best of all the seasons, but why is that? Why does fall make us feel the way we do? Let’s find out!
I love fall for many reasons, but one of my favorite feelings of the season is the overwhelming nostalgia caused by the wonderful fall scents. If you grew up with a fantastic mom who baked the best fall treats as I did, the smells of fall might bring that wave of great childhood memories. Several surveys found that the scents of autumn, such as amber, sandalwood, apple and cinnamon, are what make the season unforgettable. As we smell those wonderful scents, our brains are able to retrieve fun memories that make us miss the “good old days.” This happened to me just last week. Usually, my family would get apple cider every fall weekend. This year, once I smelled that fall smell (if you know, you know), I immediately went to Apple Valley Market and got myself some Honeycrisp apple cider. It was delicious!
Besides nostalgia, why are there so many cozy feelings centered around fall? It could be because of how our society looks at the fall season. In other words, fall may be many people’s favorite season because American society has emphasized it. We have been conditioned to love fall as much as we do. In a time where the need for nostalgic feelings is high, it is no wonder people gravitate toward autumn. The cozy and warm feelings of autumn envelop everything during the few months of fall we have. From comfort foods, pumpkin patches, drinks and movies, the call of autumn is everywhere we look! Especially in American culture, fall brings many social events such as Thanksgiving, football season with endless football watch parties and fall festivals. This can bring out our sense of community and familial and friendly love.
Not only are the leaves changing, but we are too! Sure, sometimes change can be a little scary, but the fact that the leaves are also changing around us helps us feel a little better about our own change during the fall season. This season becomes a temporal landmark: a transition that helps us “mark the endlessness of time.” We begin new seasons in our lives as the new actual season begins. We think more about the past, future, hopes and dreams. Fall feels hopeful. While we now have to go through winter, we can be sure that we will see the leaves again and the sun will shine a little brighter on the other side of it all. The same can be said for ourselves. Many of us have a hard time during winter with the snow, school and chilly temperatures. But we can be sure that we can get through it all and come out of it better than we were before.
I encourage you to go out on that fall walk, get that pumpkin or apple donut, drink that apple cider and throw yourself into a pile of leaves! Do whatever you need to do to feel those fantastic fall feelings. The autumnal leaves make me feel so much better about life when I stop and enjoy them. Michigan falls are particularly beautiful, so I hope you get to go out and enjoy the fall season! Have a wonderful Fall Break! Don’t forget to have some fun and eat a fall treat!
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.