Every January, we make New Year’s resolutions and talk about starting fresh. But maybe the real new year doesn’t begin in winter; it begins with the first crunch of leaves in the fall. Fall is the beginning of a new school year; you are getting into a new routine, and the energy is high!

Autumn is like a fresh restart. It’s that time of the year when you buy new sharpened pencils, crisp loose-leaf paper, and feel the excitement of going to football games. Fall is almost like a feeling. It’s a signal to your brain of new beginnings. A psychologist working at Cleveland Clinic says, “Fall is not just a season, it is a feeling” (Carr and Gill).

There is a deeper meaning to this “feeling.” It’s called a conditioned response. A conditioned response is a learned response. For example, you smell your favorite food, and you’re automatically hungry! So when you notice the color of the leaves change or feel the warmth of your new cardigan, we have, for the longest time, associated that with a new beginning. That’s why we, psychologically speaking, connect these small changes to a new start (Grimm).

Works Cited

Carr, Brandon, and Kimberly Gill. “Experts Explain Why Fall Season Feels So Comforting to Our Brains Nationwide.” ClickOnDetroit, 29 Sept. 2025, www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2025/09/29/experts-explain-why-fall-season-feels-so-c+omforting-to-our-brains-nationwide/.

Grimm, Beca. “5 Reasons Autumn Still Feels Like Starting Over Long After You Finish School.” Bustle, 30 July 2015, www.bustle.com/articles/100618-5-reasons-autumn-still-feels-like-starting-over-long-after-you-finish-school.