Looking Forward — Fall 2023
Schools are back in session. Football has returned. And those of us in the northern hemisphere will soon have more darkness than daylight. Fall has almost arrived. Here is what I am looking forward to during the 2023 edition of my favorite season.
Physical Activity
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is real. Most of us are familiar with the concept of the winter blues or general bouts of sadness due to the shorter days and frosty temperatures of wintertime; however, I have long advocated that summer conditions in my area of the world can have equally negative impacts on one’s mental health. Little did I know that the medical community already recognizes this.
Central Alabama summers are brutal. I won’t claim them to be significantly hotter than many other areas of the United States, but its pretty clear that the oppressive heat arrives earlier and stays later than the majority of the country. I cannot do anything outside for three full months of the year (June thru August, roughly); that puts a hard stop to nearly all of the physical activities that I enjoy. I don’t realize just how heavily this weighs on my soul until I feel it all lift when the first wave of “cooler” air arrives in late September.
The return of fall means the return of hiking, fishing, camping, and simply sitting on the patio in the evenings. And it cannot return quickly enough after the months of above average heat that all Americans have experienced this summer
Time with Extended Family
Spending more time with extended family has been my wife and I’s goal for 2023, and I would not be surprised if many shared that goal this year. Our ability to do so has been limited so far due to weather and travel commitments, but that is changing — effective now.
My favorite way to spend time with people is to share my passions with them. If I invite you to engage with me in something that I care about, it means that I love you. Double points here if the activity is something that you were already looking to get involved in. So I was insanely excited to hear multiple sets of in-laws mention their interest in visiting “the mountains” this year.
Whenever someone from Central Alabama says “the mountains” they are referring to the lower Appalachian range, which roughly spans from the Little River Gorge in northeast Alabama through the Cherokee and Nantahala National Forests. I first explored this area only a handful of years ago, and I have been hooked on it ever since given the fantastic access it provides to hiking, fishing, paddling, and scenic driving — all within a few hours of Birmingham and Atlanta. I’m looking forward to bringing a number of family members along on most, if not all, of those activities in “the mountains” this fall, especially considering I’ve never traveled to this area with any extended family.
Motorsports
I’ll get to see some really cool (and really efficient) race cars and cross an item off my bucket list at Road Atlanta come this October.
I was raised as a NASCAR fan, reborn an IndyCar fan, and evolved into a sportscar fan. I have followed endurance sports car racing since the early 2000’s, and I have always had the goal of attending one of these larger events. I set my sights on this year’s edition of Petite Le Mans after a planned trip to the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2022 was derailed for COVID-related reasons.
Most believe that 2023 is the start of a new “Golden Era” of sports car racing. This is due to the incredible increase in support for the sport from the automotive industry. NASCAR has been the most successful form of motorsports in the United States over the past twenty years, and even they have seen their industry support limited to 3 or 4 manufacturers — Chevy, Ford, and Toyota come to mind. Manufacturer support for modern sports car racing is at least double (or perhaps triple? its honestly hard to keep track of) that number now, and it continues to grow as motorsports push the boundaries of raw performance, efficiency, and alternative fuels.
Disconnecting from Work
I don’t take a lot of vacation through the first 9 months of any calendar year. I also don’t take consecutive days off of work very frequently.
A few years ago I tried utilizing my time off to create lots of long weekends in my calendar. I found that doing so makes my career and profession seem less important in the overall story of my life. It avoids the rush of preparing my work for my absence and gets rid of the angst around “getting back up to speed” when I am back online. Another way to put it is this: taking lots of long weekends allows me to feel more disconnected from work (in positive ways) and more connected to the current season of life (and the people involved in that season).
Once the last week of September comes around, I plan to work a full 5-day week only three times through the end of the year. Of the remaining 14 weekends of the year (starting and including the weekend of 9/30), I should have a long weekend on 11 of them.
I highly recommend some version of this pattern to anyone who has the ability to try it. Instead of taking off a full week around Christmas, take off every Monday of December and see how it impacts your work/life balance.
How about you?
Are there any specific, out-of-the-ordinary, ways that you like to utilize your time off from work? Or what are you looking forward to the most this fall? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
