Fall being my favorite season, I am impatiently waiting for the 85 degree days to become a thing of the past. However, I know many are desperately clinging onto these hot, sunny days. The end of summer and beginning of fall brings a lot of mixed emotions. When I was younger, I used to hate the back half of august. The end of summer meant going back to school and that was the last place I wanted to be. I would try to soak up those fleeting days of hot, humid august weather before I had to go back to school. As I grew up, I started to love fall more and more. Something about the array of orange leaves, and the slight chill in the air entices me. Each year I loved fall more and more; I started collecting sweaters like it was my job, going to pumpkin patches and eating apple cider donuts, all while holding a hot chai tea latte in my hands. My perfect fall day ends with pumpkin cookies and rewatching the first few seasons of Gilmore Girls. As my love for fall grew, my hatred for school simultaneously calmed down, and I began to look forwards to fall – but never the transition.
Perhaps it’s just the places I’ve lived, but the transition from summer to fall is never linear. The temperature never slowly declines, gradually every day until we hit the perfect 50 to 60 degree weather. Instead, one morning you wake up and there’s frost on the ground, and the next morning you wake up sweating because, despite the frost on the ground yesterday, summer is back. For example, this past Friday in Pittsburgh the high was 85, and on Saturday the high was 67, only to jump back to 81 degrees by Tuesday. While this is subject to change, this makes the transition a constant pain in the neck. What do you wear, summer clothes or fall clothes? (You could try what I did today and wear a light sweater with a tennis skirt, but I was cold in the morning and sweating on my walk back home). When do you turn off the AC? Is it nice enough to open the windows or will it get too hot? Not only does the transition bring on logistical obstacles, it also throws off my entire internal clock.
Yes, I am well aware that it is only mid-September, however Starbucks releasing their fall drinks (which I look forward to all year) on August 22nd entirely threw me off. It had me desperately craving fall before August even ended, even before I was back in school. Starbucks wasn’t the only culprit, Dunkin released their drinks soon after, and HomeGoods, TJ Maxx and Target also started putting fall stuff out come mid-August. It was like these businesses were dangling fall right over our heads, ever so slightly out of reach. Yes, I could drink my pumpkin cream cold brew, but I can’t wear my favorite fall sweater without running the risk of heat stroke.
In short, I am far from a fan of the summer to fall transition. Maybe it’s because I am always looking forwards to the next season, or maybe it’s because I never know how to dress. I’m not sure if this is universal, but I can’t imagine enjoying bouncing between two seasons like a ping pong ball.