If You're Not Stoked About Pumpkin Spice Latte Season, I Feel Bad For You.

Something major happens on the first day of October (and, sometimes, the first day of September) every year:

The menu at your favorite coffee shop changes. Just a little. But it is a very big deal.

And so begins Pumpkin Spice Latte season. 

At least one of your Facebook friends will share the famous McSweeney's article, It's Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers.

Trader Joe's will be so over-the-top pumpkin and apple cider EVERYTHING -- including, and especially, those amazing Raisin Rosemary and Fig Olive Crisps... WHICH NOW, FOR A LIMITED TIME, COME IN PUMPKIN CRANBERRY.

You're going to have the most amazing time ever in a pumpkin patch, haunted house, or corn maze...​

Your neighbors are going to start decorating their yards with outrageously spooky decorations, which make every dog walk, drive to work, and stroll to the mailbox so much more wondrous and exciting... that you will want to give them a treat (it's called #ReverseTrickOrTreating)!

From: Strangers With Candy: Reverse Trick-Or-Treating in Silicon Valley

​And don't even get me started on the Halloween parties! 

It's gonna feel like the most wonderful time of the year... until Thanksgiving. Then Christmas, then President's Day, then Valentine's Day. Then those are going to feel like the most wonderful time of the year. 

Unless... you're an uninspired sourpuss with no imagination. Someone would rather call the simple joys in life "basic" or "commercialized" than put in the minimal amount of effort it takes to make them special and enjoy them. 

After all, as I wrote in I'd Rather Be "Basic" Than... Whatever Boring Thing You Are:

While you're grumbling about how ugly Uggs are, I'll be dancing through a corn maze in my wellies —  and if someone tries to beat me to the end, they'd better watch out! I play rough!

While you're making fun of all the "sorority girls" in their puffy vests, I'll be diving into a leaf pile.

My life will never be boring, because I fill it with silliness, goofiness, and spirit. For me, Thanksgiving will never be about food and Christmas will never be about shopping. And don't even get me started on Valentine's Day!

Some people need to seek new landscapes or spend lots of money to have an adventure. But "basic" ol' me? I see each day with a new set of eyes, making every moment an adventure.

I would always rather be someone who is totally enchanted by the wind chimes in her neighborhood... than someone who looks, but never sees. ​

I would always rather be someone who travels because she loves to travel... than someone who needs to travel in order to feel excitement about the world around her. 

I would always rather be someone who can enjoy karaoke completely sober.... than someone who stays in and watches Netflix, despite its shows being offensively bad.

And I would always rather be "basic" with my puffy vests and my pumpkin spice lattes... than be scornful of people who are joyfully immersed in the changing seasons. 

Call me crazy... but I think these habits and attitudes are the way to a happy, exciting, and fulfilling life. 

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Want to know more? Check out:

• No, Traveling All the Time Will NOT Make You Happy
• ​How to Have Fun EVERY Day (Without Spending Much Money)
• Life Hack: Live Every Day Like You're Traveling
• Boring People Lead Boring Lives.

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