All my life I have been told about the wonders of autumn. The magic of the changing leaves, the cool light-sweater fashion, the pumpkin spice flavor added into everything you eat. As a girl from Florida, a place where autumn does not exist, my expectations for St. Louis’ fall were high. My wardrobe was updated to accommodate the middle ground weather of the season, and I was genuinely excited to be one of those basic girls who fills their phone’s camera roll with photos of the leaves changing over the months. Little did I know that autumn also does not exist in St. Louis. We skip straight over it into winter.

Last year, my freshman year, I sent all of my friends from home photos of the yellow and orange leaves, expecting to annoy them with the images for at least a month. But I was wrong. The fall weather lasted maybe two weeks before it was time to bring out the parkas as we got hit with polar vortexes and a lot more snow than St. Louis’ average annual snowfall. I was extremely disappointed! I was robbed of all of the joys of cold weather before the descent into below-freezing temperatures, with the only consolation being a day where I got to play in the snow—another thing we do not have in Florida.

Despite the heartbreak of losing autumn, I was told by many that last year was an exception to the norm. Usually, there is not so much snow. There is not such a quick change. There is a little more time to enjoy the colors and beauty of fall. There shouldn’t be any polar vortexes. As the young, naive freshmen that I was, I believed it.

Flash forward to Nov. 2. In the last week, St. Louis has had multiple days of 30-degree weather, with my weather app telling me it felt like 22 with the wind chill. There was supposedly snow in the early hours of the morning on Halloween. There is even a prediction for snow this Thursday, Nov. 7, with the temperature range being between 23 and 37 degrees that day. Where is the fall that I was promised?

I am not alone in my confusion and despair. When asking some students who actually experienced fall in their hometowns growing up, sophomore Kaitlyn Hersch, New Jersey native, said that “It goes from 80 degrees to 20 degrees [in St. Louis] in three days. We get one good day of fall, and it makes me sad.” Another student, sophomore Ben Gasper of Washington state says that “Fall exists for a good week, and then it’s just winter.” So even those who know what to expect from fall understand my bewilderment and upset over this loss of a season.

As I walk to my classes in Bauer Hall, I can barely stand to look at the tree that sits outside, which is losing leaves rapidly before most of them have even changed from their dark green color. My parka sits by the door sadly, knowing I don’t want to already be using it. And, it turns out, I don’t even like pumpkin spice that much. I’m sorry to say it for all of those fans of autumn out there, but if this is it, I’d rather have a Florida summer.