My piece discusses the favorite memories that come from the seasons of fall, winter, spring, and summer. I wrote this to show how each season gives me different emotions and experiences.

Fall. 

When the leaves start to change into shades of red, green, and yellow, and a brisk breeze floats around the air, I pull out my warm long-sleeved black sweaters. It’s the time for apple picking, carving out pumpkins, drinking apple cider, and cherry pie. 

Fall is always the start of a new chapter for me. Growing up, it was the start of a new school year, as I put my school uniform on, got my backpack ready with my notebooks and pencils, and started learning! As the holiday of Halloween comes, I’m reminded of my childhood memories where I dressed up as a princess, a witch, and a clown. Fall always brings me a sense of excitement as I decorate the house with spiders, skeletons, and jack o’lanterns. And as the cool air gradually gets colder for the fall harvest feast, I start to express my gratitude for all the things I have in my life. Thanksgiving gives me that time to appreciate what I have and celebrate me turning another year older. Thanksgiving dinners were hosted at my house where all of my family came over to celebrate the big feast followed by a birthday cake and plans to see a Broadway play the next day. 

Winter. 

As the cool air hits upon my face, I feel that bitter cold run through my fingers and legs where I’m numb and can’t feel any part of my body. I try as best as I can to find a store or place that’s warm. This harsh weather and wind chills make it hard to even smile, but it’s beautiful to watch snow sprinkling all over the ground. 

It’s that time when the tree gets decorated with big red and green lights. Elves, wreaths, and Santa Claus pop up all around our house. Even though I want to spend my time indoors, I like to look outside the window to see all the snow-washed row houses, apartment buildings, and cars. The trees are all covered in white and the ground no longer looks brown anymore. As I take a look outside my window, I stay inside my room to cozy up to a good book and enjoy a hot cup of green tea. As the new year begins, I start to write about my goals and new things I want to try like starting a new hobby of painting and traveling to other cities. 

Spring. 

In spring, I feel at peace. Flowers of tulips, daisies, daffodils, and cherry blossoms bloom on the trees outside my house that were once covered in snow. Now I see colors of pink, yellow, and green all over the trees. Even when I’m walking around New York City I see all of these trees with different colors near churches and schools. During spring, I go outside on walks, and I start to write more about my life. I write more stories to express how I’m feeling, how my day is going, and how I’m adjusting from the harsh brutal winter to the serenity of spring.

When spring rolls around I start to grow more with nature. I wake up every morning to hear the birds chirping. I love to see the sun start to come out and for me it’s a time where I look into achieving my goals. In spring, I see the color green everywhere I go with the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day and the memory of being a little kid to see the marching bands and bagpipers perform. Then comes out the decorations of pink, blue, red, yellow, and green all over the Easter eggs. It takes me back to the excitement of waking up every Easter morning to see the big basket filled with chocolate bunnies, and jelly beans in my basket.

Summer. 

And in summer, I feel the heat down my back as I sweat. The sun takes over and all the kids are out from school and at New York City’s parks, pools, and beaches. These are times when I would spend time at the pool with my friends and eat ice cream on those brutal hot days. 

As the summer months chug by, it’s a reflection period for me to see how far I’ve come. Every summer as a child, I would go with my family to Cape Cod, swimming in the ocean, going to all the little jewelry shops of seashell necklaces, and eating my favorite seafood of fish and chips. It was a place for me to reconnect with myself, and it was my second home. While the summer months are a way for me to relax, I look back at what goals I’ve reached, the difficulties I encountered and how that influenced me to search for new opportunities like wanting to live abroad and teach. 

As it turns back to fall, I’m faced with reality again. As the leaves change colors, my life starts to change too. The fall always brought a fresh start to my life like the beginning of a new school year, a new job, and restarting my life all over again. This is where I start a new chapter of my life, and I know that I’m in control of writing my own story.

Process

I’ve always loved the change of seasons from fall turning to winter, winter turning to spring, and spring turning into summer. After looking at my journal and seeing all of my reflections, I thought it would be nice to write a piece on the seasons. As I wrote this piece, I wanted to share my thoughts and to also share my childhood memories. Some of the tools I used was looking at micro memoirs and looking at how I can explore the theme of what each season means to me. After writing this piece, I learned how memories serve a huge part of our lives. Memories make me smile, they make me laugh, they sometimes make me sad, but they’ve shaped me into who I am today.