Indiana, like many midwestern states is known for it's inability to maintain constant weather conditions for more than a day or so. Nevertheless, I've grown to like one particular season in this state, and since today has been quite chilly and cloudy, it reminds me why I love autumn.
Autumn is like a blessing for me each year. When I was in high school, I participated in color guard during the marching band season. Marching band starts in early June and ends around the end of October. The summer months are usually horrendous, with July being the worst. We practice out on hot black pavement, holding metal poles of flags (which can get very hot as well) and water breaks never seem to come when they should. But once school starts and practices are moved to the evenings and fall weather takes over, most, if not all the practices are generally pleasant. Occasionally a thunderstorm gives us the chance to head inside early or keep us from marching, but that is also a blessing and a good chance to practice for variable weather changes at competitions.
Being in college, and no longer in color guard, has also led me to love autumn even more. I go to a large university which has almost as much green space as it does base square feet of buildings. My walk to class is usually about 10 or 15 minutes and a good amount of that involves walking into the wooded areas around a part of campus where the university isn't really allowed to cut down trees. The original owners of the land wanted the green space maintained, so if a tree was cut down, two more had to be planted on campus. This has been upheld many times while I've been here. Indeed, when last summer (2011) had a slew of bad storms tear through campus, downing a few trees, the university made an effort to replant twice that many trees on other parts of campus. I love walking through the parts of campus where buildings are hidden by trees; it's very relaxing and unstressful.
Indeed I cannot wait for fall to hit fully, because though it's nearly mid-September, the leaves have not yet begun to fall from the trees. Hopefully that begins soon, because I love crunching through leaves and watching the chipmunks and squirrels dig around in them for food. Crunchy leaves are possibly my most favorite object of fall. I also look forward to the chilly weather and Thanksgiving and it's passing into winter. It yields to hot chocolate and for Starbucks fans, pumpkin spice lattes and warm pie. Just writing about fall is making me more excited for what's to come.
I hope all of you have a wonderful fall season, whether you're in school or marching band or just looking forward to a change from the hot summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment