The Ins and Outs of Fall 

Written by Nasir Harrison. Graphic by Avery Melhado.

Now that fall has crept up on Savannah (or the first signs of a “fake fall,” as some would say), I’m making an active effort to stay both mentally and physically warm. Neither my wardrobe nor my mental health are built for the cold. Three years of living through the spine-chilling cold of this season and all I have to show for it is more sleeveless shirts than I came down here with, and a recurring sour mood I can’t seem to shake until spring.

Making an active effort to go above and beyond for myself feels nearly impossible in the midst of fall. All I want to do is waste every minute of every day in bed when the brisk breezes roll in and Clairo finds her way back into my earbuds. Fall is more than just a season for me. It’s a hurdle I’ve been bested by for the last few years. 

2026 is the year I’m going to give a lukewarm welcome to the cold. I’m grabbing the reins and riding high until the flowers bloom. I’m sure it’ll be anything but easy, but that’s never an excuse to not try. 

If you relate to any part of my struggle—the lack of sweaters, fall-time lethargy, or excess amounts of sleeveless shirts—then these ins and outs of the fall are for you as much as they are for me. 

In: Morning Yoga

I don’t know about you all, but my body always feels beyond my years when I wake up. My favorite remedy is crawling straight out of my bed and onto my yoga mat before I do anything else in the morning. I stretch with no rhyme and all the reason, and that early morning movement never fails to put me in a good mood at the start of my day. 

Out: Late night doomscrolling

Put down your pitchforks. I know we all love a good, “deserved” doomscroll at the end of a long day, and I am guilty of practicing what I preach against. But the nights I spend doing literally anything other than endlessly scrolling through every app on my phone lead to me waking up so much more refreshed. And when I already don’t want to wake up thanks to the subzero temperatures outside (anything below 65 falls into that category and I’ll die on that hill), the extra rest helps so much. 

In: “Yes” 

I have a horrible tendency to become a shut-in during the fall. The isolation eats away at me, and I find myself saying no to anything that can’t be done in my dorm: no to hangouts, no to grabbing lunch, no to anything but sleep and sadness. Well, we’re out with that this year. Being social warms my soul, and when has there ever been a downside to spending time with friends? 

Out: Sad music

I would take a bullet for all the sad songs in my playlists without a moment of hesitation. During the fall, though, I’m dealing with far too much to dig my grave deeper with Laufey and Matt Maltese. I’ll weep in the warmth and cut it out in the cold—cheers to the season of EDM and house music.

In: Tennis with friends 

Don’t ask me to go for a run if I’ll be freezing the entire time. I’ll pass on it before you can even finish the question. But if you ask me to head to Forsyth Park to play some tennis, I’ll probably beat you to the courts. Do you know how fun, gratifying, and healthy it is to smack a ball back and forth as hard as you can and run around a court for an hour? It’s amazing on all fronts.

Out: Monotony

Sometimes a breath of fresh air is all I need to get out of a funk. It’s comforting to stick to my guns and live my life with structure, but being in that box all the time can start to mess with my head. My favorite way to break out of my dull rhythm is to involve myself in randomness. I’ll deep-dive into something I swore would never interest me, or go for a walk with the sole intent of talking to people I’ve never met. The remedies for monotony are far from rocket science, but they never fail to force fresh air into my life. 

I could go on and on about my ins and outs of the fall, but above all else—living is in. I’ll learn how to co-exist with the cold instead of letting it barricade me in my room, and in the meantime, maybe I’ll go get a cute sleeveless sweater to wear until Savannah welcomes the spring heat back into our lives.