Happy September 1!
Seventeen years ago today, I sat down and wrote a blog post called Why I Love September. I was 23 years old, living in Atlanta, planning my wedding, and counting down the days until my golden birthday: 24 on September 24th.
I wrote about everything I loved about the month: the start of school, college football, cooler temperatures, leaves changing colors, and, obviously, my birthday.
Seventeen years later, I’m sitting here on another September 1st—and apparently not much has changed.
Except… everything has changed.
I’m back home in Connecticut. I’ve been married for almost 17 years. I’m a mom to three girls. Instead of missing the excitement of the first day of school, I’m sending my own children back to school. And instead of making a birthday wish list filled with Tory Burch flats and Longchamp bags (although honestly, 23-year-old me had some solid ideas), I’m getting ready to celebrate my 41st birthday in Tuscany.
The fact is… I still get ridiculously excited when September 1st arrives. Maybe even more than I did back then.
September Feels Like a Fresh Start
September always feels like my personal new year without the pressure of January resolutions. It is a reset—like returning to myself after a long summer break. As a kid, it meant new school supplies, new clothes, a new teacher, a new year of dance. After college, it was the shift from summer into football season and fall. And now, as a mom, I experience the new beginnings all over again through my daughters.
It’s the cooler mornings with a whisper of autumn air. It’s decorating for fall with football in the background. It’s planning to pick apples and looking for leaves changing colors. It’s my birthday and our best friends’ wedding in Italy! September is a really lovely intersection of tradition + anticipation + a completely new experience.
The September In-Between
One of the things I love most about September is how it’s the in-between season. September isn’t quite summer and isn’t quite fall – especially when you live in New England. We joke about leaving the house dressed for fall and coming home in your summer best. There are still warm—even sweltering hot—afternoons, but mornings feel different. Mornings smell different. And you can hear the whisper of autumn if you listen carefully.
I once said September feels like being tucked between the finale of summer, August, and all the fall vibes of a spooky October. This month is always busy as we settle into the rotation of school, dance, cross country – but the chaos is welcomed with happy open arms.
I don’t want to rush September into being October. I love it exactly as it is—the little bridge between summer and fall.
What I Love About September
I feel like my soul begins to softly sing in September. It’s the month I was born, so while I whisper farewell to a chapter of life, I’m also saying hello in the same breath.
Open windows. Football Sundays. Back-to-school/dance energy. Making wildflower bouquets with my Dad. Fall clothes for the whole family (even though it may be too warm to wear them, we like to see them hanging in the closet). The beginning of fall traditions like apple picking, mums from my parents for my birthday, and making the first of many fall recipes. The first day of autumn and the feeling when you spot the first tree changing color before all the rest.
How This September is Going to Be a Little Different
This September is going to look a little different than most because halfway through the month we’re packing our bags and heading to Italy. I’ve never been away from home for as long as we are going to be during my favorite month. Ten days—right at the end of September when the energy really starts to shift. And on top of the trip, somehow, I’ll be celebrating my 41st birthday on the same day our best friends are getting married at a villa in Tuscany.
Last September I turned 40—a freakin’ milestone birthday like no other (thus far). There was so much buildup around turning 40 and the most epic party to celebrate. Obviously forty-one doesn’t have that same fanfare. And yet… celebrating my 41st birthday in Italy with my family feels pretty spectacular.
When I wrote that first September post at 23, I was planning my wedding. Seventeen years later, I’m traveling to Tuscany with the man I married and our three daughters to celebrate someone else’s wedding.
I don’t think 23-year-old me could have imagined this version of September—or this version of my life.
Why I Still Love September
I’ve written before about my complicated relationship with nostalgia. I have a tendency to romanticize the past, wishing I could go back to a certain age, place, or season of life. Change has always been hard for me, especially when it means saying goodbye to something I really loved.
Maybe that’s another reason September has always felt so special to me.
September exists somewhere in between. Between summer and fall. Between endings and beginnings. Between holding on to what was and getting excited about what’s coming next.
September reminds me that change doesn’t always have to feel sad. Sometimes change looks like cooler mornings, new school years, another birthday, plane tickets to somewhere new, and pulling your favorite sweatshirt out of the closet for the first time.
My life looks almost nothing like it did when I wrote Why I Love September seventeen years ago, but I’m really happy this part of me hasn’t changed.
So here’s to September 2026. To holding onto the last warm days of summer, welcoming the first signs of fall, celebrating another trip around the sun, making new memories with my family, and appreciating this season while I’m actually living it.
Happy September. I’m so glad you’re here.
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