All winter long, people yearn for the warmth: those sunny days on the beach, the refreshing breeze, and a tan that summer blesses us with. But as the days pass and we reach August, people forget how much they waited for summer and just want it to be over. They are fed up with the heat, humidity, and blasting AC. They crave crisp, cool early mornings and sweater weather. As if they forgot how much they craved summer for months, the feeling is gone, filled with a need for fall. But why? Cooler weather and sweaters aren’t the only things that come with fall.
The legendary drop of Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes and fall drinks comes right along with it. Every year towards the end of the summer, people impatiently wait for the announcement of the fall menu, not noticing the beautiful summer weather still blossoming around them. This year, people didn’t have to wait for long. On Tuesday, Aug. 25, Starbucks dropped the fall menu. Twenty-eight days before the start of fall, the fall menu was released. Instead of enjoying the last month and a half of summer, people rushed for it to be over. The one thing that is looked forward to all year – gone in an instant. Pumpkin Spice Season is starting way too early, making people rush through summer instead of savoring it.
As more and more companies start to release their fall menus earlier and earlier each year, pumpkin spice stops being a fun seasonal drink and becomes a symbol. The second people take that first sip, people’s minds race towards pumpkin patches, Halloween, chilly mornings, and the changing colors of the leaves. Companies create a false illusion, making us feel as though fall has arrived before it actually has.
Additionally, a fall menu coming out in August is ridiculous. The feeling of grabbing a pumpkin spice latte on a cool morning in jeans and a sweater and taking the first sip of your latte really welcomes the fall. This feeling can’t fully be captured on a beautiful hot summer day; they are two completely different feelings. There is something off-putting about drinking a pumpkin spice latte, thinking about fall, while sweating in the summer heat.
Now if we start every season early, like we have with fall, doesn’t that take the excitement away? If pumpkin spice starts in August, decorating for Halloween starts in September, and the Christmas trees are bought and decorated before Thanksgiving, when do we actually get to enjoy each season? If everything that makes a season feel special starts to come early, that special feeling is gone. Starting early doesn’t make the feeling last longer; it makes it dwindle and feel insignificant, as you are already moving on to the next thing. As a society, we are always rushing to get to the next thing, to cross off the next thing on the to-do list, to get to the next season. But let’s just slow down and enjoy the time and season we are in, and not think about what’s up next, as rushing kills the fun of it all.
