by Laura Taylor
As the weather turns colder and leaves crunch underfoot, it is a clear indication that fall is officially upon us. I have always loved the idea of fall more than the real thing. My Pinterest feed romanticizes the season in the weeks leading up with images of cozy sweaters and fall recipes. Each year, the spell is inevitably broken as I wrap my jacket around myself when I am forced to walk from the library to my residence hall after a late night of studying. I often find myself conflicted between remaining in the warm comfort of my room or braving the cold to go eat, socialize, or study. I also tend to look back on the warmer days with a kind of nostalgia and curse my past self for not appreciating it while it lasted. With the cold serving as a barrier between me and the outside world, I neglect self care activities that I used to never think about. I’ll realize it’s been three days since I spoke to any of my friends or since I ate a meal with any protein. The aesthetics of this season that populate my Pinterest boards are a small comfort during this time. Romanticizing this time of year helps me to push through the seasonal depression and find pockets of comfort. With that said, I am going to offer a survival guide for individuals like myself who need some help enjoying the colder months. I will include some healthy indoor activities that will prevent you from bedrotting while keeping you in your cozy pajamas as well as some activities that will hopefully give you a small incentive to brave the cold.
Books:
Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling
I know it’s basic but any Harry Potter book comforts me while I’m curled up in bed. I personally like to listen to the audiobook and let the world of witches, wizards, potions, giants, and spells lull me to sleep.
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
If you want to get lost in a book this fall, Little Women is a happy cozy story that could cheer anyone up. While the length is intimidating for some, it is actually a very light read, so it is a nice book to read over a long period of time, reading a chapter here and there whenever you need some cheering up.
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
If you want a darker mystery novel, I cannot recommend this book enough. It starts out slow and builds the tension until the explosive ending. Get lost in an old creepy house haunted by the memory of one woman.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things – Iain Reid
This is the perfect book to read in one sitting. Its eerie prose will make your heart beat and the plot will completely tie your brain up in knots. You will not know what is going on but you will not be able to put it down.
If We Were Villains – M.L. Rio
This book also happens to fit perfectly with the theater department’s production of Hamlet, which is coming up in November. This is another mind bending read about a Shakespeare play at a college that bleeds into the actor’s real life, resulting in a murder.
Additional books:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Carmilla – J. Sheridan Le Fanu
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Bunny – Mona Awad
My Dark Vanessa – Kate Elizabeth Russell
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
The Maidens – Alex Michaelides
Antigone – Sophocles
No Exit – Taylor Adams
The Hunting Party – Lucey Foley
Macbeth – William Shakespeare
Movies/TV:
When Harry Met Sally
Twilight
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Gilmore Girls
Charmed (1998)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Halloweentown
Hocus Pocus
The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
Vampire Diaries
Wednesday
Practical Magic
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Corpse Bride
The Love Witch
Dead Poet Society
Moonstruck
Coraline
Corpse Bride
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Activities:
Baking
Hot chocolate
Movie nights
Jump into leaf piles
Card games
Pumpkin painting/carving
Taking pictures
Journaling
Collect fall leaves
The trick to romanticizing fall is indulging the small moments as much as possible. Letting the Cowan hot cocoa warm your chest before you leave Cowan, snuggling up with a good book, buying a sugary fall drink, embracing the feeling of walking into a warm building after power walking in the cold. Embrace it with people. Be cold together. Get warm together.