Autumn? Whats Autumn?

California is my home; I love it, and cherish it. If anyone says anything about California I get so defensive. It’s my home, I grew up there and I hate when people who have never even been there criticize it and defame the people there. I even simply hate the idea that Californians have an accent, which some PCV’s here swear we do… Which we don’t by the way, I may talk like a valley girl, but I don’t have an accent.
Anyways, being a Californian I am use to perfect weather pretty much year round. I mean thinking back, even when it was cold, it was never really cold. I walked Lucca around in the winter in a tank top and jeans. I slept in shorts, pretty much always, and my apartment’s heater didn’t even work and I never complained because in the 4 years I lived there, there were only a handful of times I needed it.
That being said, I have now come to realize that there is something that California lacks. I have heard this before but never really understood what it meant or why it mattered. California doesn’t really have changing seasons. I mean sure the temperature changes a bit, but thinking back, the scenery doesn’t so much. I mean there are times when its green, and times when it’s less green.
I never realized this before I saw an Armenian Autumn. On the Marshootni ride home last week, as I was lost in thoughts of what it takes to be a good volunteer and who it is I want to be here, I stared out the window. Somewhere in between being lost in though and half falling asleep my eyes focused on a tree whose leaves were entirely red. I snapped out of my Marshootni coma, the aforementioned state of being sleepy and lost in thought, and began to look out the window, to really look. I couldn’t believe the almost aromatic colors I was seeing. My eyes were filled with stimulus as my nose would be filled with scents, or my mouth with taste. The reds, greens, yellows, oranges, golden purples, and browns blended together with the grey rain clouds and made the most beautiful picture. As we drove on I was no longer sleepy, I mean how can you be sleepy when your eyes are filled with a delicious cinnamon roll of flavors? More than anything I wanted to get out and take pictures. I wanted to share with my family how beautiful October could be. How the sage green cabbage patches contrast so amazingly with the red apple trees and golden hay. But the truth is that my crappy camera wouldn’t have been able to capture just how beautiful that drive really was. As I sat on that marshootni filled with 18 other sleeping passengers, a feeling of gratitude washed over me. I am living the life I always wanted to, seeing things I’ve never seen before. I closed my eyes and said a prayer of thanks, and when I opened my eyes a new fall sight filled my eyes, the most beautiful zietsan I have ever seen…. A rainbow! So thankful for all the blessings God has given me, and I hope I can continue to see them even when times get tough and the weather gets colder…