A Love Letter to Change
Written By: Grace Weidenhamer
Summer to me is bright colors and patterns, oversized t-shirts, funky accessories and spontaneity. It’s tangled hair with braids and beaded necklaces, and a mix of chlorine and sunscreen-soaked skin. It’s fun, reckless and energized.
Winter, however, has a sort of chicness that summer just can’t replicate. The tall boots, long coats, and scarves with mittens. Sparkle lights and champagne glasses. A red lip and winged liner.
Winter feels like an old-school rom-com. Christmas in New York City. Dark academia and dinner parties. A girl in a trench coat on a mission to get home for the holidays. A classic book by the fireplace. The juxtaposition of holiday traffic and a Friday night in.
I love the energy summer brings with its eclectic style and long days in the sun. Tanning oil and the smell of the Earth. Reading young-adult fiction on a kindle.
I feel a tug of nostalgia during this time of year. I feel a sense of coming home, settling in. Kids coming home from college for the first time. A Crockpot meal waiting for you when you walk in the door. Pets curled up by the windowsill.
Although the days are getting shorter, there’s this comforting glow in the early morning hours or as the sun is going down. The world is tinted an orange hue, matching the leaves crunching under your feet. Like a warm hug combating the cool breeze turning your nose pink.
The changing of the seasons reminds us that change within ourselves is inevitable, but beautiful in its own way. And even though we change out our decorations and wardrobes, feeling the sadness of packing memories away, we know it’s only a matter of time before we’re right back to where we once were.
The flip flops and tank tops will come out again. What’s gone now is not lost for good, but rather making space for us to evolve and experience the beauty of a new season. But there’s a promise of return. A promise that no matter how far we drift, how distant those old memories seem, the sun will rise on another June morning again. We may be different, but some things will always remain the same.