Thoughts on the changing of the season

I’m sitting on the couch at 4:00 in the morning because I can’t sleep. I’m used to it, so it’s no big deal. Since I have some free time, and the last rerun of The Soup just ended, now is as good a time for a post as any. Classes begin this week for your resident professional student, and I’m reminded of how much I have grown to truly love Fall (and it is Fall, don’t call it Autumn that’s just pretentious). It’s really a great time of year; the return of football coupled with the baseball playoffs makes it a sports fan’s paradise. Apple orchards, wearing a hooded sweat shirt with no jacket, haunted houses, and burning leaves are just a few of the things that make September and October my two favorite months on the calendar. This hasn’t always been the case, when I was younger I mourned the end of summer like the passing of an old friend. There would be no more days of sandlot baseball from breakfast until dark. Soon I would be sentenced to the kiddie version of a forced labor camp, public school. I honestly hated every minute of it, from the teachers who were forced to act more like prison guards, to the administrators who were so terrified of lawsuits that they could be reclassified as an inert gas. That’s not even mentioning my wonderful classmates who behaved as if Boyz in the Hood was an instructional video.

Luckily, I eventually transferred to a private school, but that still didn’t alter the feeling of dread that would rush through me as the calendar turned from August to September. Once school started, I would set about putting three times the effort into avoiding class as I did into trying to learn the material. Looking back on this, and considering the mountain of student loans I’ve taken out (enough that you might as well stamp Property of Sallie Mae on my butt) I can’t help but think it’s all a bit ironic (or maybe it isn’t ironic, I’ve misplaced my Alanis Morrisette’s Guide to Irony).

So as I watched Michigan stomp the snot out of Connecticut this Saturday, eating hickory-smoked roast, with a smile on my face, my thoughts trailed off. I wondered if the fondness for education that I had developed over the years was related to my growing appreciation for the season. After a bit of quick analysis I have to conclude that it is. The things I that like about Fall are things I’ve always liked: the sports, the food, the weather. Unfortunately, negativity was preventing me from fully making the connections that were right there in front of my face. I suppose I had what some might call a moment of grace, a realization of how blessed I was to be doing what it is I enjoy. I know that most students are putting in their time, working just to get the piece of paper that signals to potential employers: “Yes, I am hire-able.” I know that I will eventually have to leave school, and engage in that most adult of activities, career building. After this weekend though, I think it’s essential to remember the importance of enjoying what you do for its own sake and how that can give the rest of your life coherence.