Evermore Season

September, the most enchanting-sounding month for me, will pass by in a few days. The weather is expectedly usual. It has been cloudy and raining hard at midnights thus far, signaling the true characteristic of the last quarter of the year.

I am having an instant coffee in the cup I have adored for years. I placed it on the same familiar side of my wooden desk. What I see around right now at work is the same people and things that sound next to home. I did not imagine staying for another full year in my job for three years. But I am here. Then it hit me that I have transitioned from a fast-paced to a more laid-back headspace, at least for now.

To put it plainly, this time of the year is my Evermore season. I enjoy lying in bed longer than usual and tolerate more screen time to consume movie recommendations. I feel lazy, which is helpful to think less about what happened and what will be coming next year.

In a conversation with my workmate this morning, we talked about careers and degrees, what we took, did not, and considered for a long time. We are young, and we have all the time in the world. But life is tricky. It seems continuous when you are literally timed. And this awareness of wanting more is what troubles the young adults. 

“You cannot be complacent for years if you want to see what’s on the other side,” I have this in my head as a snack. But the talk was not obsessing about that. It was more about admitting that we could try some other time.

These days are about forgetting what a cup of instant noodles can do to the body. Back when eating was less coupled with health consciousness, which was my kind of Evermore season in my formative years.

When I was around the ages 7 to 10 in the 2000s, exchanging gifts during year-end school parties saw the entire grade school pupils get overly excited about biscuits, candies, and other food packs, basically available in sari-sari stores. They cost us (or our parents) 20 pesos or less that time. But the joy they rewarded was beyond what the present trend for material things brings.

Life was easy when we were only used to counting coins and chasing tangible people under the sun. In my being an adult in 2023, I can only recall what used to be while consuming the remainder of the year with few regrets.

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Drafted Sep 25, 2023