Hello, Rover readers! It’s me, Brenston the Rover watchdog here, typing away on my dogwriter–arff, arff! I’m hearing jazz in the air, and it reminds me–it’s fall! Let me give you a few reminders about this beautiful season we’re in.

Fall has this tendency to bring out the best in us–the dreams, the hopes, the dropes (a mixture of the two). Maybe it’s the crackling leaves underboot as one strolls across God Quad. Maybe it’s the apples in the dining hall which one can munch on while hiding underneath the Jesus table during lunchtime, as that fall sunshine streams through those huge, gorgeous windows. Maybe it’s the hundreds–nay, thousands–of tootsie rolls we’re sure to throw down our gullets in the next few days. Yum.

In any case, though, let’s remind ourselves, since we can so often forget: Fall can be stressful. Maybe it’s the allergies which cause us to wake up under our futons in the morning with a puffy face, a runny nose, and watering eyes. Maybe it’s the chilly days which cause us to clutch our Patagonia™ shawls tightly to our chests, as our watering eyes brace against the wind. Maybe it’s the dark nights–and the watering eyes, again. It’s something, that’s for sure.

Maybe it’s the crazy up-and-down, aye, perhaps stressful and joyful thing that is the varsity tackle football season. We don’t always have the most satisfying victories. And we don’t always have the best coaches. We don’t always have players who stay around. And we don’t always have the NCAA deciding that they don’t have to vacate our wins. We don’t always have cool uniforms. And we don’t always have the tackles, the goals, and the penalty kicks that make football such an exciting game to watch. But we do have a half-a-billion dollar stadium extension that, in the Fall, feels cozy and cuddly. And that’s beautiful.

Listen, folks. I’m just an old watchdog.  But I just want to remind you–keep remembering the good parts of Fall. For as hard as things are now–one day you may look back, and think that it never got better than this. And it didn’t.