It's Autumn! It's Fall! It's that time of year again! Celebrate!

I always get excited when September comes around. It has always meant new hope, new beginnings, a fresh start, a chance to begin again. New opportunities always seemed to be just around the corner.

With the coming of September is the start of a new school year. For me, I always loved getting ready for a new school year. Shopping for new school clothes and new school supplies was one of my favorite times of the year. The first day of the school was always exciting because I could meet new people and new teachers as well as see everyone that returned from the previous year.

September is the start of a new season. One of my favorite seasons. Autumn or Fall, depending on where you hail from. With autumn comes harvesting your summer produce and putting it up for the coming year. The weather turns cooler. Carefully put away sweaters come out of drawers or storage and get put on for the first time.

One of my favorite things about Autumn are the smells that I always associate with it. The smell of new erasers, pencils and books. The smell of the classrooms when you first enter after being shut up during summer. The smell of wood smoke coming from chimneys and smoke from people clearing their yards to get rid of summer's debris to prepare for winter. It's also associated in my mind with the smell of blackberry jam and homemade dill pickles being made by my mom. The smell of cookies that I baked for after school treats for my brothers and myself. It also meant it was time for me to start planning the holiday baking.

The colors of the season have always felt comforting to me for some reason. The colors of red, orange, yellow and brown. The colors of fallen leaves. Autumn has the best holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Yellow and orange that is found in fallen leaves, candy corn and sweet potatoes with butter on them. Brown found in some leaves, nuts, and the top of fresh baked bread.

Well, this year I am still excited. It took me the whole summer along with a team of supportive people to help me delve deeper into my self to divine my interests, skills, talents, and knowledge to come up with a new career path for me. After much counseling, meditation, research and soul searching the answer made itself known to me. I have decided to go into something having to do with the psychological field and helping people, some kind of social work case manager type of thing. There are two possible career titles. One is Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker. The other is Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselor. The plan is to start on my BA in the Winter Quarter at BBC with the eventuality of going on to get my Masters degree. The next few years will certainly become challenging.

Hopefully along the way I can take some classes in web design and management as well as some other computer classes so that I can troubleshoot things myself and not have to rely on others. Also it would be great if I could squeeze in there somehow creative writing.

Go get a hot latte, cappuchino, espresso, tea or chocolate. Light a fire in the fireplace. Grab a book and read. Or bundle up and go for a walk to enjoy the sensations of Autumn. Celebrate the season!