It’s the beginning of October, which means summer has officially come to an end. The tan lines are fading, the summer weather is changing, and my mood is saddening. Summer is one of the best seasons of the year for multiple reasons, one of them being that you no longer have to go to school every day. As much as I love going to school to see my friends, late movie nights and sleeping in are my favorite things. Swim parties and snow cones are always exciting, but something that sucks about summer, particularly in Texas, is the heat. Now I grew up here, so you would think I would be used to the hot, one-hundred degree weather, but nothing can prepare you for this kind of heat. You walk outside and almost instantly start to break a sweat. Don’t try and walk on the concrete without shoes—you are almost guaranteed to get second degree burns. Laying out to get a tan sounds nice for about ten minutes before your skin boils and you sweat your body weight off. Ice cream melts within seconds, and don’t even try to do your hair because it will probably be ruined by the time you walk out of the house. Fall, on the other hand, is the complete opposite.
Texas fall isn’t necessarily the same as it is in other parts of the country. In Texas, the leaves basically never change colors—they just die. We wear light sweaters and drink Pumpkin Spice Latte’s with the slim hope of snow every year. In the North, their leaves change into a nice orange/red color and they get to wear thicker, heavier coats while ordering their PSLs extra hot. In a way, I guess fall is better in Texas. You don’t have to worry about it getting freezing cold, most years, and you don’t really have to worry about whether it is going to snow or not. But if it does, everyone absolutely freaks out. “It will be 34 tomorrow with a 10% chance of ice” and all of a sudden school is canceled. People in Texas have no idea what to do when it gets cold. They prepare for the worst by going to the grocery store and stocking up on food, as if they’ll go hungry from the snow that’s not even going to stick. They’ll go to the gas station and fill up their tanks, because you know if there’s tons of snow and you can’t leave your house, at least you have your tank filled up!
And that is why Spring is my thing.