“I would like a double tall, extra spice, extra foam, extra hot, 4 pump vanilla, brown sugar, pumpkin spice latte”

“It’s 88 degrees..”

“So? It’s October.”

The “basic white girl” can be defined as none other than the 20-year-old native Houston female. And I mean basic. She can’t wait for “cold” weather because sweaters. Tori Burch has those new riding boots with the cuff she just has to get, and don’t forget about the hat and scarf set she bought at Target because she just had to. The pumpkin patch is basically her sanctuary and the stack of photos she’s going to have after going on her hay-ride double date is her bible. She can’t even with the 4 degree temperature drop but then again she can kind of because that means Netflix and chill: and not just normal Netflix and chill, Netflix and chill Halloween edition. Only 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 17 hours, 6 minutes, and one early Christmas present until Christmas she says, but not before all the food she’s going to eat on thanksgiving. Oh wait, nvm, she just remembered she doesn’t even really like thanksgiving food. She’s a vegan.

Approaching fall is great, don’t get me wrong, but what’s better are the reasons and traditions behind the things like the double tall, extra spice, extra foam, extra hot, 4 pump vanilla, brown sugar, pumpkin spice lattes and the early Christmas presents.

Fall is great when you walk outside in the morning and you first notice the leaves changing into their shades of orange and red. When your high school football team makes it to districts so you figure you should splurge and buy the hat and scarf set you’ve been eye-balling.It’s great when your standing on those metal bleachers, your hot chocolate has turned cold and you can no longer feel your face but still manage to cheer your heart out because at the moment, that’s all that matters. It’s hugging your best friend on the field, looking each other in the eye and tearing up because you know it’s the last game he’ll ever play.

Halloween is the anticipation of the sun going down and making sure you have the most glow sticks despite the clash with your costume. It’s the sight of the neighbor-hood hay-ride as you jump on and off collecting every piece of candy you can get your hands on. Then, watching Halloween town in the living room and trading twizzlers for Hershey bars.

Thanksgiving is waking up to the Rockettes on the TV screen in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, having dreams and ambitions of maybe one day dancing in New York. It’s trying your hardest not to eat breakfast so you can make it through round one with dad’s family and then round two with mom’s. When your heart is broken that you have to spend holidays in two places and your sister starts a tradition of going to see a thanksgiving night movie.

Winter is the first snowflake falling from the night sky. It’s going into an indoor soccer game and coming out to knee-high snow and a buried car. It’s staying up all night watching the news, waiting for your school to pop up on the school closings. Its teaching yourself how to like coffee because your car heater is broken and staying awake on the ride to school is just as challenging as trying to get the frost off the windshield. Luckily you discover the pumpkin spice flavor and that personal tradition carries you through December High-School mornings. It’s when you take 5 hour train rides to magical cities with your best friends, even though wind chill is at -19 degrees. It’s slipping on ice as you run up the stairs, unable to catch yourself because your hands are shoved deep in your coat pockets and laughing together until it hurts.

Christmas is being home. It’s staring out the window and mistaking every star for Rudolph. It’s getting far too excited about opening your early Christmas present even though you know it’s just going to be your Christmas Eve pjs you get every year. It’s falling asleep to mom reading you the same stories after 20 years and taking a picture in front of the tree with a family that consists of no real relatives.

There’s a reason behind the hat and scarf set and the annual hay rides, and maybe we’re all just trying to capture the sense of warmth and stability than seems to come with the cold and shaky. The basic white girl pulls it off all too well, and I do have to say I applaud the yearly recreation of the perfect pumpkin patch photo. However, living someplace where the temperature doesn’t get below 40 and the air is a constant smell of car exhaust, I admit that a Midwest girl might do the holidays just a little better than the basic.