It starts with the wind changing.
Hot summer air turns to cool autumn breezes that chill the temperature just enough to let one consider bringing out all their sweaters and sweatshirts and every collection of colorful scarves, lulling a passerby into believing it will stay cool enough for them to wear the layers all day.
Heads up; it will not.
There is a consistency to be found in the way the trees change colors, their shades of green fading to reds and browns and yellows, decorating every part of the grass that is still green despite the cold. Though there is a distinct shift in the air when one day all the leaves are hanging and the next they have fallen.
The type of leaves that parents can convince their kids to rake up for a couple bucks that always ends up covering the lawn again the moment they are done. The joy of jumping in the pile of leaves overtaking the idea of how much work they had just made null and void.
But they are just kids.
School is back in session, though everything feels off with the past two years sitting in the back of everyone's minds. No matter the attempts at normalcy from the adults, there is little that can be done to stop the overwhelming feeling that everyone wants things to go back to normal.
But there is normalcy to be found in the way summer changes to autumn.
In the childlike joy that comes with every time a leaf is crunched purposefully under foot, the loud happy laughter that echoes across campus when someone just cannot hold it in. Joy that belongs to other people brings enough of a smile to everyone else that spreads with ease across the stretch of majors.
The realization that Halloween is just around the corner brings out the fake cobwebs and spiders and skeleton decorations. Every scandalous announcement that someone has never carved a pumpkin before met immediately by a car packed full of students making that specific trip down the mountain for the best pumpkin to try and make things feel like they did when they were young.
Even if the costumes have changed and the joy is missing for most, there is still the happiness that comes with the change in holiday vibes, and candy.
Candy helps.
Those who can stomach scary movies and haunted houses appear in droves, moving through every faked setting as many times as they can and still finding joy even when the ghosts are the same as last year and the plot is far too similar to that of a vaguely different movie.
There are a few that still make their costumes, holding on tight to every memory from childhood as they dress like a witch or princess or their favorite superhero.
And then it turns cold. The wind grows claws and fangs and bites at exposed fingers and noses, while the air stings on every sharp inhale.
But there is an even coating of frost on the ground in the mornings, just enough that one can convince themself that it is, in fact, snow, and the moment it rains everyone prays for ice. Some semblance of soft crystalized water that dances through the air or falls in sheets, just enough that maybe – just maybe – classes will be canceled.
Because everyone is tired, and everyone wants a day off without guilt or worry.
The arrival of pumpkin flavored everything at Starbucks and in stores is sure to come, but does it ever really taste like pumpkin?
There is better food to eat than artificial pumpkin coffee, namely those little Pillsbury sugar cookies that everyone knows should not be eaten raw but does it really matter? Little pieces of happiness are found in the form of foods that only show up in autumn: roasted pumpkin seeds and pies of every flavor, hot chocolate that spreads its warmth into one’s bones without hesitation.
And who even cares about seasonal depression when apple cider makes its appearance on the shelves of every chain store.
Thanksgiving will appear faster than it would seem, right around the corner and full of family and friends and good times, even if the family is just friends or if it is just one with their memories.
Because not every holiday is happy, and that is okay.
School will come back and maybe, hopefully, it will be easier.
Everyone will return to campus eager to learn and excited to see the found families and friends that they have created on the mountain they call home in their own regards.
When Christmas is here, it will be met with happiness, though every student and professor will experience the holiday in their own way. Finals decorating the week before break and then it feels like Christmas Day is minutes away.
Christmas decorations are something else, colorful lights and the manger on the mantel, a nod to why this celebration happened. Christmas services are full of happy truths that remind everyone of just how it was when they were kids.
The joy of Christmas Morning is something that rarely changes.
Child-like excitement at every moment shared with whoever they are closest to, and the reassurances that family is not limited by those assigned by birth or growth punctuated by the love that every student has for each other. Who knows, maybe it will snow on Christmas, and that old movie with Bing Crosby will come to everyone's mind.
The end of the year will be happy, and the beginning of the next entirely full of well placed hope.
Because there is consistency to be found in the way the wind changes.