Look around. If you observe carefully enough, you will notice how the once dewy and green leaves of June have begun to fall from their branches and dance in the wind as crisps of warm yellow and golden orange. If you pay close attention, you will sense how the bright sun that was once a fiery halo over your burning head, is now reduced to almost a mere beam of light, straining to shine through the dense clouds floating above Pittsburgh. You may also have noticed that the morning air is a lot more chilly than it used to be, as you stepped outside for your 8:30 class, and then stepped back inside to grab your threadbare flannel and put on socks with your Adidas slides.
As we take in the breathtaking transition into a new autumn season, let us also reflect on the summer prior and the winter that will soon follow.
Let us be dreamers, musing upon the merry memories we made to the upbeat thrills of this past summer. Cherish those fond moments at the beach with your boyfriend or girlfriend, and relive the family gatherings and with your baby cousins. And as academic/extracurricular stresses inevitably attempt to eat at these memories, commemorate them again, and savor them, like the last slice of your own birthday cake.
Let us be preparers, not simply by investing in thermal jumpers and heavy raglans for the stinging storms of December, but also by equipping ourselves mentally, physically, and personally, for the next stage on which life puts us. There are academic pedestals we seek to stand on, job applications to pile through, personal fitness goals to achieve, or even healthier relationships that we desire to have. Keep these destinations in mind as you transition into the next phase of your life.
But let us not be forgetters of the present. Let us learn to live in the moment, amid holding dear to our history, all the while, preparing wisely for what is to come.