The leaves change to orange. The wind turns crisp. It is finally Fall in the mitten state. My favorite time of year, my favorite place during this time of the year.
As a child, I could not wait until the fall season. Not only because I enjoyed going back to school, but the return of school meant the annual school’s field trip to the apple orchard. As a child, the apple orchard was my favorite field trip. The leaves crack under my feet as I exit the yellow school bus. The beautiful fall colors and the loud laughter of my friends as they jump from activity to activity. I just want to be that child again. The child that experienced the world for the first time, with all its new shapes and colors. That exact moment, I would give anything to have that feeling of discovery back.
As I got older, I tried to replicate that feeling that I adored. I would go to the cider mills with friends just to hold on to that feeling of adolescence for just awhile longer. The sugar from the cinnamon donut created white specks on my pants that were impossible to wipe off, as the hot cider stung my tongue with no warnings. The colors were the same, my friend’s laughter more mature but the feeling of comfort was still the same.
During my tenure in Virginia for college, I have yet to find a place to replace the cider mills in Michigan. Virginia’s weather tosses between hot or scorching hot. The air does not smell the same, it does not look the same, I am not the same. I am not the child who yearns for those beautiful fall afternoons. I am now the adult who must find time in her schedule to take in the beauty of the season change. My friends are all over the country, I miss their laughs as we scavenged through corn-stricken mazes. I miss them. I miss that feeling of having everything I loved with me at the same time.
I am 21 years of age and I still think of my childhood as if it was yesterday. My obsession with fall in Michigan comes with my desire to return to my favorite time in my life. Oh to be in Michigan again during fall, oh to be that child of wonder again.