{"id":8680,"date":"2018-10-01T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/?p=8680"},"modified":"2018-10-01T12:00:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T16:00:09","slug":"what-september-means-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/2018\/10\/01\/what-september-means-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What September Means to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the pre-school age of two to the high school age of 18, I dreaded the month of September. If you don\u2019t believe me, check out the video of me wearing sunglasses during nap time at \u201cMiss Rita\u2019s,” clenching the end of my mother\u2019s checkered skirt, babbling about wanting the \u201csun, sun, sun\u201d to play under. Sure, my mom was born in September (so I couldn\u2019t tell her how much I disliked her birth month), but other than that, there wasn\u2019t necessarily a holiday for me to celebrate (sorry again, mom). I would dress up as the classic witch in October, my aunt would stuff the 20-pound turkey in November, and Santa would come to town in December. But September? September meant school, which meant less time under the \u201csun, sun, sun\u201d and more time indoors. Bathing suit season\u2026 over. \u201cF.R.I.E.N.D.S.\u201d binge watching season\u2026 in the past. My<\/em> birthday festivities… sweet July memories. <\/p>\n

After beginning college though, my thoughts surrounding September began to change.  The first letter of this once horrifying month no longer stood for \u201cSchool Starts\u201d or \u201cStress Strikes.\u201d I now began classes in August (which I have since nicknamed, \u201cThe Aggravation Awareness Month\u201d), so I couldn\u2019t really blame September for the commencement of my “scholastic sentence.” On my bus rides to the Lower East Side, I began to take note of all the cool things to do in this now cooler<\/em> weather. Smorgasburg was taking over the East River State Park. Madison Square Eats was buzzing in the Flatiron District. EZOO was blowing up Randall\u2019s Island. Apple picking at Melville farm\u2026 why not?  City walking tours\u2026 it wouldn\u2019t be too hot to do one or two, or even five. San Gennaro Festival? Yes, please! <\/p>\n

Tanning in the pool on my beloved pizza floatie defined relaxation, but, as you can tell from the exclamation points above, I sought excitement and, after doing my Instagram and Facebook research, a whole shipload of it docked in September.<\/p>\n

I fell in love with the weather\u2019s hybrid nature. Technically, we were still in the summer months, so I could pull out the shorts if I needed to; however, I could snuggle into a \u201cSeptember sweater\u201d and avoid the \u201cAren\u2019t you hot?\u201d stares. Fall would roll in on the 21st<\/sup> of the month, but I could unofficially celebrate weeks beforehand. I stocked up at the Bath & Body Works Fall Season sale and sprayed my room (and myself) with \u201cChampagne Apple\u201d and \u201cMarshmallow Pumpkin Latte.” Normally, I would have waited until mid-October to do so, but I didn\u2019t have to: things were on sale from now\u2026 in September.  It was a (dollar) sign.  <\/p>\n

\u201cFall Fashion\u201d\u2026 I began to develop my own sense of style. On my bus rides and strolls to class, I would take pictures of the colors\/tones that I found in nature and write down outfit ideas in the planner I once reserved for \u201cSeptember struggles\u201d in high school. My purchases incorporated a lot of hues borrowed from the summer, like light yellows and blues, but mixed in some \u201cFallish\u201d ones as well. I wasn\u2019t too deep into the \u201cburgundy-red-wicked\u201d color yet, so there was a lot of opportunity to experiment. And the white-to-jean-post-Labor Day-switch was a holiday in and of itself. I would celebrate with nothing other than a shopping spree, which sounded like a segway into the season.  <\/p>\n

Three years since I reconciled my differences with September and to tell you the truth, I think our relationship is better than ever. I relax in the pre-midterm phase, explore the cityscape, and eat a rather concerning amount of pumpkin scones from Starbucks. To end this on a rather clich\u00e9 note, I don\u2019t think I want to be woken up \u201cwhen September ends,” but rather right before it begins so I can enjoy all that it is and has. It\u2019s a pretty \u201cspecial\u201d month, unlike “The Aggravation Awareness Month.”  I simply dread August.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the pre-school age of two to the high school age of 18, I dreaded the month of September. If you don\u2019t believe me, check out the video of me wearing sunglasses during nap time at \u201cMiss Rita\u2019s,” clenching the end of my mother\u2019s checkered skirt, babbling about wanting the \u201csun, sun, sun\u201d to play…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":703,"featured_media":8709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1596],"class_list":["post-8680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}