October Woes

With September over, it’s time to look to the month ahead of us to see what it holds, or in this case what it doesn’t. October is the worst and here’s why:Happy Nothing. The October holidays are lackluster at best, leaving us with little for which to be excited. July has the fourth. December has Christmas. November has thanksgiving. April has Hitler’s birthday. There’s always something to look forward to when a lot of other months rolls around, but not October. There are only three good holidays that come to mind for October, but they’re all tainted. Sukkot looks like an awesome couple of days, but I’m not Jewish, so I can’t hang out in the Sukkah. Columbus Day just bums me out. Why would I celebrate some guy who accidentally sailed to the same continent that I live on? The only intentional accomplishment of Columbus’s was his enslaving the Natives, absolutely decimating an entire people. Happy genocide day! The only holiday that I get to participate in is Halloween, which serves as an entirely useless day to students at the academy. As children, the day couldn’t possible be more fun. A whole day to be Batman and get a free step to diabetes, what could be better? And as a young adult it’s an excuse to dress promiscuously, and do things you regret. But in a sleepy New England boarding school, Halloween is just another day where we get to "dress up like Andover students" and watch everybody else have fun.New England Weather. Classic complaint at Exeter, the weather is terrible. But October is truly the worst. For the rest of the year, the weather around here is really warm, really cold, or getting warmer. It’s nice in a way. As long as you get a big fluffy jacket, you can embrace it. But in October there’s nothing to embrace. It isn’t sweater weather, no that went out with the yellowing of the leaves. And it’s not big coat time, we’ve got until mid November at the latest. It’s this awkward middle ground of freezing rain, and sunny days that are bitter cold.Stress. The fall can be killer, but October is really when it’s at its worst. Every year has got something to deal with. Preps are stressing out about making friends and whether it’s too late to do so or getting a P instead of a P squared in Comp Sci 211. Lowers are stressing out about things that don’t matter like PEA night life and how to comb your hair. Uppers are in upper year, so it’s all one long no sleep marathon. And Seniors have the big one, college essays. Good luck guys.I hope you join me in disliking October, as well as February, May, and June if you think you’re up for it.