1. Cold weather.
I don't know about everyone else, but there is something about cold weather that just makes me feel alive. The feeling of a breeze – an actual cool breeze, not a hot, sticky one – whistling through my hair is like a drug for me. I crave it. A cloudy, kinda dark, windy day is my favorite day. Even if it chaps my skin, it's okay. I always have emergency lip balm and lotion in my bag for this very instance. You're chilly enough to want to cozy up in a sweatshirt and socks. This weather is perfect because it is not cold enough for your nose to start bleeding the second you step outside, but you also won't sweat through your shirt on the walk to work.
2. The color palette.
Summer neons can be too flashy, winter blacks and grays can be too boring, but autumnal colors are classic. Personally, I don't care about which colors should be confined to each season, but there are some colors that are just made for fall. Mustard yellow, bronze, dark green, brown, burgundy, black, orange: you can wear them in other seasons, but they just look so right from September to November. It's such a beautiful color palette for such a beautiful season.
3. The fashion.
Is anything cozier than wrapping up in your dad's giant sweatshirt? Is there a better feeling than slipping on your boyfriend's soft flannel when you miss him? Doesn't wearing an over-sized sweater just give you the feeling of being hugged 24/7? You can't do any of those things in any other seasons but fall and winter. And even then, in winter you are always wrapped up in huge coats and stuffy scarves. Autumn is the peak time of fashion. Still want to wear a dress? Throw a cardigan over it and put on some cute embroidered tights. Feel sick but have to go out to get medicine? Sweatshirt. Hair a mess but have a hot date to get ready for? Get a dark floppy hat. Cold in the morning but still kinda hot in the afternoon? Cute denim jacket and ascot. Still clinging to summer's last rays? Dark skirt with leather boots. Slept in till 2:00 and have an appointment at 2:30? Flannel, ripped jeans, and a light beanie. Ground muddy after late summer rains? Black combat boots. Easy. I don't care if it is only September – once the weather falls below 70 degrees, I'm busting out the hoodies and the flannel.
4. Fun dates and activities.
Autumn gives you the opportunity to cuddle up to someone special around a bonfire while also affording you the chance to go apple picking with your best friends. Fall is the time to carve pumpkins without being creepy and hike without sweating a bucket. Ever had a picnic in the middle of a forest with leaves falling around you? Magical. Ever driven through the mountains while the leaves turned colors? Enchanting. Corn mazes and football games and late nights and haybales and making scarecrows all can be added to the list. Fall is the time to make memories with those closest to you while also enjoying the limited activities that only happen once a year.
5. The food and drinks.
I might be the only person on the planet, but I drink hot coffee, tea, and cider all year round. I don't care if I could get a sunburn the moment I step outside; you're not taking my hot coffee away from me. However, fall is the time of year where it is socially acceptable to drink hot chocolate and eat pumpkin pie. Make fun of Pumpkin Spice Lattes all you want, but we all fall into the bandwagon once September rolls around. You might hate on me, but I don't care. You'll find me by the fireplace shoveling handfuls of candy corn into my mouth and downing apple cider by the gallon in May.
6. It's spooky season.
While Christmas is the best holiday, Halloween is a close second. When else since preschool are adults allowed to dress up as dinosaurs and superheroes and collect buckets of candy? You're called "weird" and "psycho" when you watch "Friday the 13th" anytime but October. If you put up tombstones and skeletons in your yard in January, you get a visit from the cops. However, in fall, it is perfectly normal and even encouraged. Going through a haunted house gives you the chance to grab your crush's hand without raising too many eyebrows. Spooks and frights make this season lively before everything dies in December. Long live the Jack-O-Lantern buckets and the animatronic witches in the Halloween store. Catch me watching "Hocus Pocus" wearing a giraffe onesie and drinking haunted punch at the next party.
In conclusion, autumn is the best season of the year. Nothing makes you feel so alive as spilling your apple cider on your warmest dark-green flannel while getting the jeebies scared out of you on a haunted trail ride with your best friends.
