The crispness of the air makes you tug your scarf a little tighter around your neck as you head to your next class. But it’s the good kind of crisp, the kind that wisps through the strands of your hair and makes little goosebumps rise to the top of your arms as they take solace in the warmth of your favorite flannel. Sweater weather is finally upon you here on the East Coast, and you’re prepared to embrace this change of season with open arms and a bevy of stylish outfits.

The air smells…different. But you can’t quite put your finger on exactly what it isthat’s different. All you know is that it thoroughly intrigues you how autumn has its own distinct aroma. Maybe it’s the scent of the dying leaves, crunching underneath the weight of your body as you put one booted foot in front of the other.

Or perhaps it’s the electric sunset as it dips behind the trees that suddenly makes the wind smell like a warm fireplace that’s bellowing a thin stream of smoke into the air from a faraway place.

All you know is that this is much different than the scent of summer. Summer smelt like the salt of the ocean kissing the shoreline, marshmallows mushed between melting chocolate and crummy graham crackers, and it smelt like nights you wouldn’t remember. But that is now all a thing of the past. This is what your senses have tingled in anticipation for since…well, since last fall. Now, as you look around you, you see what a superb artist Mother Nature is. She has taken all the leaves on your campus and delicately splashed zesty colors on every single leaf hanging from the dainty branches of the trees. Your eyes soak in the vibrancy like a moth being drawn closer to a flame.

You push a rogue lock of hair out of your eyes with one hand, while you take a sip of your pumpkin spice latte with the other. Oh, how cliché. But nothing beats the taste of warm pumpkin gliding across your tongue and dancing its way towards the back of your throat. They’ll call you basic, and even snicker at you for ordering this coveted, seasonal flavor. But that doesn’t matter to you, because this is the flavor you’ve waited all damn year for, and you’ll drink every last drop if you please to do so.

You hike your bag up a little higher on your shoulder and let your thoughts jump ahead of schoolwork (for a change) and to the exciting events you have all planned out for this season. Nothing beats autumn activities. Not even the lazy summer days spent out in the sun, not the spring days spent watching the flowers blossom and blowing your nose from allergies, and certainly not the winter days when you’re stuck inside (or outside, shoveling) from a blizzard they made sound far less impactful on the news. 'Tis the season for apple picking with friends as you order more apple cider doughnuts than you alone can possibly consume and admiring all the little pumpkins in wooden bins.

Pumpkins. Yes. Of course, the beautiful process of pumpkin picking. God, sometimes you wish you were born into this world as an actual pumpkin. These are precious little babies and you feel completely at peace as you hunt through the patch, laughing your way through the non-oppressive sunshine and searching for the perfectly plump pumpkin so you can name it and love it forever and ever (or, at least until it sadly rots).

And you simply cannot forget about all the fun fall festivities! Street fairs, fall festivals, haunted houses, trips up to Salem, scary movies watched between parted fingers, costume parties, baking the scary ghost cookies from the Pillsbury pack, Central Park on a chilly day, Pumpkin Pecan Waffles-scented candles and handsoaps, nights spent on the beach traded for cozying up next to bonfires; the list goes on as long as you wish fall would last for. The thought of all these thrilling festivities makes your heart flutter in eager excitement.

So before you enter the building and commit yourself to focusing in class for the next few hours, you take another glance behind you at the beauty that is fall. You admire the serene way in which the leaves melodiously drift into the grass, because you know the days are numbered on this magnificent, golden time of year. You’re already beginning to savor these moments because even though the season just started, it doesn’t last all year like you wish it would.