Our Life in Autumn

Caught up in getting through the week. We couldn’t always see each other twice a week; life gets much too busy. The sunrise always comes too early. Every morning is its own challenge, but we must eventually get up. We have classes to go to, assignments to catch up on, exams to study for. Weekends were our chance to reconnect. Caught up in getting through the week. Winter creeps in on you; spring and summer follow suit. But autumn was always my favorite. This was the autumn of our lives. Yet, I know too well that autumn is fleeting. The beautiful changes in the leaves are blown away.

But man, was autumn beautiful. Inside jokes were code for “I love you.” Buried birds in Arrigo seemed not so strange to us. Dinner parties were to celebrate us. Thai Bowl was our ritual, and Chilango nachos were a delicacy. We pushed the boundaries of how cherished one porch could be and how much fun we could make haircuts. We were delighted to be the last ones at each other's parties. But we always knew that the morning-after recollections were even more fun. We’d fit five to a bed to sing our favorite songs. In autumn, we started bands. In autumn, we started record labels. In autumn, we fell in love. We went from being strangers to seeing each other's hometowns, from peeking in on each other’s radio shows to being roommates. I’m always stuck imagining if we’d be friends if we’d met as kids, wondering how different we must have been. Autumn is always gone too soon.

Caught up in getting through the week. We couldn’t always see each other. The sun always leaves too soon. The moon's soft glow lulls me to sleep. We must put our heads down. We must get jobs. We must start families. Scarcely are our chances to reconnect. Caught up in getting through the week. The funny thing is, autumn always comes back around. One day, we will all look back, and I know that we’ll be content. We’ll think about how lucky we were to have been thrown together. How lucky we were to have had each other. How lucky we were to spend autumn together.