Fall Back

Maybe you’ve heard me say this before (for Summer, Spring, Winter..) but this is my very favorite time of year! Fall has to be the most beautiful time – especially when you start your morning with a run on Ashland. I can’t explain everything I love about this time of year. It has a little to do with crockpots, open windows, hooded sweatshirts, and the Chiefs. But all of this would mean nothing to me if it wasn’t for all of the memories that go with these things. Fall reminds me of two years ago this time, when David would drive up on the weekends to see me in my little Plaza apartment, when I would run around the Plaza after work and then sit on my favorite bench, and when Sundays were spent at Chiefs games or at the little sushi place across from our apartment drinking bloody mary’s and watching the game. Fall reminds me of my wonderful mom’s Birthday and Halloween, a baby shower for Sister #1, the Plaza with Sister #2, and watching Sister #4 dance at the football games of my beloved Griffs!

I remember the first time I really saw David after knowing I had my huge crush on him. It was a beautiful day at a Chief’s tailgate and I could barely even make myself talk to him (this is an understatement of course, you might need the real story from Sister #2). And here’s the crazy part, this was only two years ago. Two years ago Sister #1 was pregnant with little Eli, Sister #2 and I were living on the Plaza, Sister #4 was dancing and turning 21, and David and I weren’t dating, engaged, or married. Two years have flown by.

And this is the part where this Fall starts to make me nostalgic. I remember thinking that it was weird how grown-ups talked about time flying by so much. I thought, come on, two years is a long time! Now I look at the pictures in my cube which was not my cube even a year ago and see a picture of me with my best friend pregnant with her now 6 month old baby, of David and me the day we picked out our house, my second nephew (that one we had the Fall baby shower for two years ago) standing by a big 1 that will now be 2, and a picture of my happy grandparents who are no longer here. I remember last year at this time running on Ashland and going over and over in my head what I would say at my interview – my interview for this job that I have now been with for a year. This year has flown by.

I’m not sad about any of this. I love each of these memories. And I know that this Fall will bring even more wonderful memories with it. Memories filled with a lot of firsts for us. This will be our first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hunting season, Chiefs season, and Christmas as a married couple. Nothing makes me happier than making these memories with David. But there’s a part of me that knows that it will go by too quickly. And that a year from now I will sit here and look at pictures of David and me at the Chiefs home opener, my sisters and mom wedding dress shopping with Sister #2, a college graduation picture with Sister #4, and a picture of Sister #1 with her husband and my nephews in Halloween costumes. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait for these new Fall memories, but I also know that Fall flies by too quickly. So for now, I think I can just wake up early each morning and enjoy this short season on Ashland, and drink a cup of coffee with my husband while thinking about that wonderful Chiefs morning two years ago and what wonderful memories we will make this Fall. And I can accept that next year when I look back at these pictures from right now, I won’t be the same person I am now, and I won’t be in the same place that I was when the pictures were taken, but that it will be wonderful and exciting, and that the Fall of 2012 will be filled with its own memories just like this Fall will be.