He said
Fall is a busy season. It's maybe the busiest three months in the calendar year. Things are definitely happening.
Sports are huge in the fall. Hockey is back. The CFL playoff races heat up, and the NFL season has kicked off. Baseball is entering playoffs, the Tour Championship just ended golf's summer schedule and if you like basketball, well they're on lockout. But who likes basketball anyway?
If you're a television buff, 'tis the season when every network show begins again and you can check out whatever this thing I hear people call Snooki is up to. Or if you're a nerd like me, find out exactly what happened to Peter in the last episode of Fringe. It seems like he was erased from existence and memory.
The summer blockbuster movie is fun and often mindless, which is great when it's hot out, but once fall rolls along, those films that I didn't watch at TIFF begin hitting screens. I would take the fall movie schedule over the summer one anytime.
Everybody knows Christmas is not just a couple of days near the end of December. That stuff starts in the fall. Most of Christmas is over by the time Dec. 21 and the first day of winter, show up. All that's really left is to eat the turkey.
That all sounds pretty good, except the bit about basketball and Snooki. Is it really enough to make fall better than my go-to best season: spring?
As far as the weather goes, spring is in all ways better than fall. It's kind of a question of a glass half-empty or half-full. In the fall, tomorrow is always darker and colder than the day that came before. The spring has that great realization one day that there's still daylight past 7 p.m. In the spring everything is blooming, while in the fall things are dying. Spring is definitely the season of the optimist.
Spring has some sporting events of its own. The NHL playoffs and Memorial Cup tournament are obviously noteworthy. The Masters and Players Championship put the world's best golfers on two of the most beautiful golf courses on the planet. The Premier League could be interesting, but the last seven years have only seen Manchester United and Chelsea win the league. With that kind of predictability, it's only interesting if you're English.
Those television shows that began in the fall are now either coming to exciting conclusions, or you got bored with them in November and stopped watching.
Fall does seem like a good season, but I just can't give up on spring yet.
She said
I have always loved fall. I think it's because I was born in the fall, and the season has always meant a birthday party with my mom's homemade ice cream cake. Plus, it's hard to hate a season when my skin finally stops burning every time I step outdoors.
Seriously though, fall is the best. It isn't too hot, like summer definitely can be. There seems to be fewer mosquitoes. My favourite sports usually start up. And - don't tell my classmates 'cause I'll get a bad rep - school starts, and I generally enjoy school.
Summer and winter are too extreme for me. So hot. So cold. Windburn. Sunburn. Storms that make it nearly impossible to travel on our beautiful Saskatchewan highways. It's great for a while, but when the end of August comes around, or the end of March, I'm beyond ready for a change.
Spring is nice, too, I guess. It has all the mildness of fall, which is a fun change. But it's chilly and often wet. I usually like spring for a couple of weeks, but after I've soaked all of my shoes in puddles at least once, I'm ready for the next season to roll on in.
Fall doesn't lose its appeal, and I think that's what makes it the best. I can wake up every autumn morning (or afternoon) and be refreshed walking to school. Plus, school is still fun and new in the fall, and hasn't reached the "burn-out" stage of December.
Unfortunately fall is annoyingly short, and the sunny, crisp days with bright leaves and smells quickly turn into frozen winds and melted mascara of winter. Consider Halloween. Halloween is supposed to be the perfect time to dress up and trick-or-treat (as a child), and when lovely fall weather stretches all the way to the end of October, the planets align and Halloween nirvana is achieved. Of course, most of my Halloweens of my youth involve squeezing my ski pants on under my Princess Jasmine costume and tromping from house to house in snowboots. This type of Halloween is not a fun, fall-time adventure: it's part of the horror of winter, and serves as another example why winter sucks.
And fall rocks. Yay for autumn.
