Autumn: Old Friends and New Beginnings

From the tone of the last post, you could sense SP was hanging on to the last syrup-y drops of summer, wallowing in nostalgia as the August days slipped away. Well, that nostalgia is nothing compared to the pangs we feel when the weather changes. As August gives way to Autumn, the senses tingle and the memories pull with each familiar sight and scent. There is something in the air now that takes us back to the ritual of college. We fill stadiums on football Saturdays, sweaters climb back into the drawers, bourbon slips back into the cups, and our minds start clicking with new pursuits. This is the real start of the year. It feels as if something new and exciting is in the crisp air offering a chance to reach higher, delve deeper, re-invent or re-dedicate. Forget about New Year’s and resolutions, September is the time of renewal and hope and new beginnings.

Just like in the college days of old –– we look to September for change and tradition. (yes, SP is a few years removed from the salad days of drop-and-add. Our younger readers will have to bear with us here, the old folks are feeling sentimental at the start of the semester). We return from summer holidays looking for our old friends and old routines, but we also look to this time to kick-start something new. Whether returning to the class room (at any age) or starting a new business or moving into a new place or even a new city, September is the time when we enjoy those seemingly incompatible notions of nostalgia and the new.

SP recommends: Read a new book. Learn a new language. Buy some new clothes. Brush off the old ones. Visit your college for the weekend. Go to a football game. Move into a new apartment. Do something! This is the time of year when all things seem possible. Let the new chill in the air spur you on to great new challenges.