Growing up in Illinois, autumn has always been a monumental season, marked by physical and emotional changes. I can vividly recall raking the leaves in my backyard and jumping in them. I remember going to the Nordstrom Rack and picking out new boots and coats with my mom. On Halloween, my friends and I would be driven from house to house for trick-or-treating because it was too cold for us to walk. Fall was also marked by annual trips to corn mazes, cuddling under blankets at Football games, and apple picking to use in homemade hot pies. What ties these memories together, however, is the fact that they signified a distinct change. Although we were officially moving from the summer into the school year, the happiness these events brought made that change comfortable. They provided me something to look forward to, and were a distraction from the stress that the whirlwind the school year was bringing.
Yet, my first fall in a new state lacks all these comforts. Arizona is still hot, so there’s no noticeable change from summer to the school year. Additionally, all those traditions that marked my adolescence seem nonexistent. This season I won’t get to jump in piles of leaves, nor will I need to go through the required retail-therapy brought on by the necessity for warmer clothes. Football games are still incredibly hot and sweaty, and the hot foods I enjoyed are way too hot to enjoy here.
On the surface, I will miss these activities, plain and simple. However, it’s really the feelings attached to these activities that I am yearning for. The elimination of these activities serves as a very real example that I’m far away from home, and embarking on a new chapter of my life. No longer can I rely on the comfortable transition from summer to fall to help me through the next couple months of school. Instead, I must rely on my memories of these events, and make attempts to find Arizona-friendly activities to replace the activities of my childhood.
The nostalgia for old traditions is very real, but I know that in order to enjoy college to the fullest I must break away from my nostalgia and make new traditions. Halloween car rides will be replaced by Halloweekend parties. Hot pies will be replaced by cold cider. And the search for cold-weather clothes will just have to be postponed until January.
All in all, it’ll be hard to break away from my childhood fall traditions. Nonetheless, I’m excited for the new traditions that being in Arizona will bring.