When I stepped outside my house yesterday morning, I was hit with a refreshingly cool blast of air. The outside temperature had dropped to somewhere in the 60's, and I believed I could have stood outside much longer without being too cold and yet still feeling the rush of cool wind on my face. Again I experienced the coolness, and also the silence, at 2:30 this morning when I took my dog out, although I kind of rushed inside creeped out a bit. Outside the streets are silent, cool, inviting. It feels like fall and school, even though we all know another heat spell or two are around the corner before the leaves start to change.
I love fall. Fall is so motivating to me. It always feels like something exciting is coming, even though that something is winter, which is not exciting (unless that Something is Christmas, which is). Looking back on my life, I suppose I see why. Although summers were good for vacation, camps, rest, and working hard, fall brought me back into daily contact with my friends, into exploring new subjects in school, and to fresh blank notebooks, ready to be written in! What is more exciting than an open book?
And in recent memory, I can honestly say the best three months of my life (in, say, the last 10 years or so), happened during the fall.
And this fall I absolutely know something is coming because I am in planning mode. If my plans fail, or if my dreams are not realized, I have backups and alternatives galore to fill my head with excitement. Yes, an intense fall prepares me for an exciting winter and so on. Life will move fast now or it will drag on. I only have to savor it.
Fall is also nice because we can once again venture outside. Every summer we get excited at the opportunity to spend our days at the pool and our nights in the backyard barbecuing. But reality hits, and we rush into the air conditioning to escape the biting bugs and the searing sun. And compare fall with spring, where hopes are also born of venturing out in the warming weather. But spring is always wet. And, although October has its fair share of rain, I feel like the tendency in fall is toward the perfect crisp, cool, sunny day.
Walking down the city street in the cooler weather made me FEEL much more like I was in a big city again. Perhaps this was because one fall I was. Or perhaps because I felt more able to enjoy my surroundings in general, no matter where they were. Still, as I readied to cozy up in the winter, I imagined a new social experiment - a month without a car. These are my chronicles of commuting on public transportation.
Fascinating, right? After I had mentally planned everything out, I realized none of it would work. I would have to walk 1.5 miles each way to the bus stop each day, and I would need to get there by 6:00-ish. Rain or shine. And in September I would have to start wearing dress-clothes to work again. What about volunteering on the weekends? Was there a stop any bit closer to my house? Oh, the weight I would lose! But financially I'd be no better off! I'd have to drive more miles into work or pay for parking to break even on the bus. So my mental experiment with big-city life failed from the get-go, but it was nice to dream.
Then again, if I really lived in the big city, I would miss out on the joys of fall. As mornings grow colder and colder, still refreshing, but edging closer to dastardly cold. As the nip in the air is joined with the faint smell of smoke in fireplaces. As trees change colors, spiders retreat (at last!), pumpkins pop up, and children walk to and fro with their backpacks on. I'm so glad this happens every year - hands down my favorite season. And something's coming (watch for "Sarah's Top Secret Project" in the future).
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