For most midwesterners, fall is a time for a long-awaited reprieve from the exhausting swelteringly hot days of summer. Widely regarded as one of the top four seasons, fall is a great time to finally catch a break and stop sweating for a single day or two before the Missouri winter comes in. However, this year the dream of a soothing autumn was crushed by the heartless winds of an early winter.
If, for some odd reason, you live in Missouri and were not expecting this erratic weather, don’t worry. You don’t have to give up on your dreams of pumpkin patches, corn mazes and haunted houses. Spooky season stops for nothing, not even the equally frightening effects of a probably frigid forthcoming winter.
Here are three tried and true tips to make this premature winter feel like the fall it’s supposed to be.
Layer up!
Look cute and fashionable while you walk around campus! Sport a heavy coat while you walk outside on your way to class, because you never know when a snow will fall on the tallest hill in Clay County. A light jacket is perfect for study sessions in the Pryor Learning Commons, but the much warmer academic buildings may require you to shed the jacket and flaunt a comfortable and cute fall sweater.
If you are brave-hearted and uber-passionate about fall, you could defy the winter weather and refuse to wear a coat before the winter solstice. Although, I wouldn’t recommend this act of defiance – during my initial refusal to acknowledge the bitter weather and pretend it felt like fall, I immediately got a cold.
Drink all the seasonal drinks.
Warm drinks are necessary to endure this weather – and adding a seasonal flavoring is a great way to keep your Monday morning coffee or tea fun. While you’re relentlessly visiting the Perch or @thebeak during this frantic time in the semester, be sure to add flavors like apple, pumpkin or hazelnut to make it a festive ordeal.
If you haven’t heard the news, it’s cold outside. Much like vampires can be warded off by garlic (a useful piece of fall information), you can ward off winter using flavoring.
I cannot stress this enough, in order to ward off winter you must avoid its associated flavoring at all cost. In order to keep the charade of fall up during this weather, peppermint and eggnog must not enter your seasonal drinks before the winter solstice on Dec. 21.
Visit fall-centric locales.
What’s a better way to pretend it’s not cloudy with a high of 50 degrees outside than going outside and participating in fall activities?
Pumpkin patches, corn mazes and haunted houses are all great places to visit during fall. Looking at typical autumn scenery is a perfect way to disillusion yourself into thinking it’s a cool October day outside instead of having to face the reality that it is most likely raining, snowing or sleeting.
Sure, the pumpkin patch may be muddy, the corn maze may be withered from the cold and it may be a bit too brisk while you wait in line for the haunted house – ignore this. If you focus on your fall activities enough, you may not even notice the goose bumps on your skin.
While you visit these fall locales, be sure to capture the perfect Instagram documentation that you actually did so – otherwise who would believe you even went?
Suffering through the all too early frigid temperatures while trying to enjoy fall can be tough. Getting a cold while you’re just trying to show off the two sweaters you got at JCPenney for 38 dollars without a coat getting in the way can be tougher. But there is a solution.
Doing the aforementioned strategies will help you keep your head in the fall weather clouds and push off the biting winter weather as long as you can.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
