The end of summer isn’t pretty: my hard-earned tan is fading back to my usual pasty skin tone, I’ve got bags under my eyes from waking up four hours earlier than my body wants to, and beginning of the year activities leave little time for things like hair brushing or make-up doing.

This has probably been the hardest summer-to-school transition I’ve ever had. A lot of my friends went off to college and I’m still stuck here with the ridiculous load that comes at the start of senior year, most notably college applications. At the beginning of the summer I vowed to have my college essays written and Common Application completed before I had school and homework to worry about, but by September I still hadn’t done anything except create a username on the Common App website. The already onset senioritis hasn’t helped much, either.

Just this past week, however, things have started to look up. I’ve finally gotten over the end of summer, and I’m starting to get excited about the beginning of fall. The cold weather has reminded me of how much I love fall clothes. Today in the Journal Sentinel there was a whole section dedicated to fall fashion, and I just got the fall J. Crew catalogue (unfortunately I’m not in a position to spend $235 on a puffer jacket, but I can still dream).

 

This whole summer I’ve stuck to a uniform of running shorts and t-shirts, but there’s so much more variety in cold weather clothes. I’m making a scarf right now in fibers class, and I can finally start wearing those boots I bought two months ago.

Besides the wardrobe, I love how fall brings holiday after holiday. Stores have brought out their Halloween stuff already, and although a lot of people hate it when holidays begin so early, I say the more of them, the merrier. We’re entering the season where from now until January, houses are covered in Halloween/Thanksgiving/Chanuchrismakwanzakah/New Year’s decorations. It also seems like everyone has a birthday around this time (in fact, I like to consider my September 19^th birthday as the beginning of this holiday marathon).

So even though fall means the end of summer, I guess it’s not all downhill from here. I’ve just started most of my college applications, and although I can’t say that I’ve gotten used to school, it’s at least not as painful as it was a few weeks ago, now that I’ve realized the things I have to look forward to. I guess the old cliché about a closed door bringing an open window is true; since we live in Wisconsin, though, opening a heating vent might be a better choice right now.

I’ve just started packing, and I’m already beginning to feel culture shock: I’m not supposed to bring sweatpants.

Over spring break, I’m going to Italy on a school trip. I think it goes without saying that I’m super excited, especially because I’ve never been out of the country before. I’ve been preparing for awhile now, buying things and trying to learn some Italian. I think that “vorrei un gelato al cioccolato, por favore” (“I would like a chocolate gelato, please”) should be enough to get me by.

But then there’s this whole sweatpants problem. My Latin teacher who’s taking us on the trip says that people in Europe don’t wear sweatpants, so we shouldn’t waste space in our suitcase packing them. She also says that in her opinion, wearing sweatpants is like saying “I give up.”

If you watch Project Runway, you could say that Wisconsin fashion isn’t very fierce, but it is comfortable. It's nice to have the option to go nearly anywhere in sweatpants and not look out of place. If you go to Sendik’s, there’s sweatpants; Mayfair, there’s sweatpants; church, there’s sweatpants. It’s going to be interesting to see how differently the Italians dress. I'm guessing that there are no green and gold zuba pants.

Anyway, needing something other than sweatpants to wear is a good excuse to go shopping. And, of course, it’s Italy. I’ve got no reason to complain. It’ll definitely be worth sacrificing a little comfort.