A Lesson From the Leaves
Written By: Kate Rekas ‘27
Edited By: Angelica Marin ‘27
As the sun begins to slip behind the earth earlier and earlier into the cooler months, it can be easy to find yourself slipping with it. Daylight fades earlier, rain becomes more regular, and the air begins to bite in the morning hours. Summer is a distant dream now, and the routine of pressing academic deadlines and frequent extracurricular commitments buzzes in the background of your mind (at least it does in mine).
While the fall season has many redeeming qualities: pumpkin spice everything, the return of layered fashion, halloween, football season, and whatever else excites you about it, it can become easy to lose perspective and pace as a college student. Once the excitement of the return to campus wears off, life can start to feel monotonous. As students, we’re bogged down by the picking up of assignments, and midterms, and as the light fades, the variety in our days does as well. This makes it all too easy to become overwhelmed, uninspired, and stuck in a routine that doesn’t fulfill us.
Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do about the sun’s earlier departure that limits our more productive hours, so it’s our task to combat the seasonal slump (and even at times, depression) with other methods. I look to the trees that begin to lose leaves, leaving bare branches to stand alone... that begin to crunch underfoot for inspiration.
As the semester begins, the leaves are still green, steadily attached to their trees and holding on for the months to come, like we return energized and ready to begin the semester. We all know the fate of these leaves, to end up brown, shriveled, and probably in a storm drain. Rather than imagining we too are simply crunched up and drained of life and energy this fall, even though it may feel like is sometimes), I urge you to zoom out to see the life cycle of the leaves, rather than dwell on their sidewalk death (or your academic demise for that matter).
The leaves fall from the trees, leaving them bare after a colorful display. As November is underway, the branches are bare, leaving room for new growth. The leaves show us the beauty of change and evolution, and serve as a reminder that starting over is a necessity. While most often view January as a time to begin again, form new habits, and take accountability, I propose that this type of personal reflection begins in the months leading up to the new year. Rather than become stuck in the humdrum rigidity of academic routine, look to the leaves as a reminder to make a change, take a chance, and let go to leave room for something better to begin growing.
Fall is a season of nature's turnover, a period of transition that leaves room for whatever comes next, a reminder that we are all evolving, changing and growing beings... To refuse change is to inhibit growth and progress, follow the leaves and let go to let grow.