“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne

Wow, do I love October. I think it’s my second favorite month — after November, of course, because that’s when my birthday is. (Note to my friends and anyone else, for that matter: exactly 31 shopping days left.)

Anyway, back to October. There’s something really wonderful about October, when autumn truly takes shape.

Autumn is a time of much nostalgia for me. More than any other season, fall transports me back to certain stages of my life and sits me there.

There’s a certain feeling about autumn that’s hard to define. It fills up my senses until I’m compelled to remember the past.

It starts with the way fall looks. Burning shades of gold and copper fill our sights. Every color is deeper, every hue more intense. The swirling leaves at my feet remind me of my childhood — of jumping headfirst into piles of leaves in my backyard.

The sounds of autumn are also instrumental, with the whistling wind all around and crunching leaves underfoot.

The cadence of the marching band takes me back to grade school. I remember listening to the high school band practice near my house and not being able to wait until I got to march, too.

The way fall feels is incredible. I enjoy the feeling on a crisp October morning when it’s just cool enough to wear a sweater but not cold enough to wear a coat, or a warm, lazy afternoon, when you feel like you’re stealing back a bit of the past summer.

These sights, sounds and sensations evoke memories of years past. However, the most nostalgic sense of autumn, for me, is the sense of smell.

This may be difficult to understand because the smell of something isn’t easily articulated. But there is definitely a specific smell I associate with autumn.

I think it begins with the smell of schools. I don’t know about your schools, but my grade school always had a very distinctive “fall” smell. It had something to do with brand-new books and clean hallways, before kids had infiltrated the building.

I can very clearly remember the smell of Robert Frost Elementary School on my first day of class. Even now, whenever I go back there to harass old teachers, I’m taken back to first grade.

Another autumn aroma is the smell of bus exhaust. Yeah, I know, that’s kind of strange. Bus exhaust reminds me of marching band.

See, almost every Saturday we would get up early and load the buses outside Lincoln High School to head off to band competitions. The bus smell never fails to bring me back to those cold mornings. I loved it.

The most poignant smell of autumn is the campfire/burning-leaf aroma. I love this smell. It reminds me of carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating and going on late-afternoon walks through my colorful neighborhood. It also always reminds of a more specific event.

It was October 26, 1991. I had been at a pre-Halloween dance and had then gone over to the house of some family friends. All night, the campfire smell was hanging in the air. I can remember sitting in the basement next to my dad, watching game six of the World Series.

Kirby Puckett robbed an Atlanta Brave of a home run and then ended the game with a home run in the bottom of the 7th inning.

It was the October of my beloved Minnesota Twins. That smell will always remind me of my euphoria that night and the following night when the Twins won the series.

I think autumn is a nostalgic season for all of us. We all have memories of that first day of school, that first junior high dance and that first football game. These memories may even be associated with a particular sense — a particular feeling.

So, at the beginning of this picturesque month, enjoy the sights and sounds. Allow yourself to be enveloped by the beauty of the season. Remember, you only have a certain number of autumns left.

Enjoy October while it lasts!

Sara Ziegler is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.