Every year around this time, I start to get bored of the summer and wish for the return of autumn.  My favorite season.  Longing for the slightly cooler days and crisp evenings, the crunching of leaves beneath my feet, the calming brown and orange hues produced by nature, and of course, the leather jacket and boots that I can finally take out of my closet again.  The tranquility of the summer is still there, but there’s a hint of something more, something hurried.

I’m not sure when I first realized my love for autumn.  There was a time when I would have said that summer was my favorite season, but I don’t think that was ever really true.  There are great things about the summer, but all of those things carry through into autumn.

Interestingly, I’m not in such a hurry to see summer go this year.  Maybe I’ll revert to my old way of thinking after the temperature spikes this weekend, but I think it’s more a state-of-mind than anything else.  This has been a summer of beginning new friendships and ending old ones, of exciting possibilities and a few disappointments, but most importantly, it has been a summer of growing and learning new facets about myself.  And I wouldn’t change any of that.

As the summer draws to a close, it reminds me to take life’s paths a bit more slowly, to not be in such a rush.  That the choices we make constantly have the ability to bring us somewhere we’ve never been, with people we never knew that we’d meet.

While the days are still hot, take that opportunity to visit the beach again.  Take a walk on the sand.  Dip your toes in the surf.  Plunge into the ocean.  Live life in the present, because nothing in this world is a guarantee except this moment, right now.