The skies are blue. The air will soon take on the crisp morning bite as the smell of autumn swirls around. The trees are getting ready to shed their leaves, and the cloudy haze that is fall semester slowly but surely rolls into focus.

And just like that, summer is gone, and we’re back for yet another year. It’s a bittersweet feeling that nips us into gear because we know that, in all honesty, fall semester is the best semester.

Now, freshman, you are new to this, so the excitement is all consuming as you unpack your things and move into your dorms. You will walk down the hall to meet up with your new friends before carrying on with your evening or find the table that will soon become your regular lunch spot in the dining center. Believe me when I say this, because I’m not wrong: fall semester is the better half of the whole that we call a school year. Why may you ask? Let me tell you.

Fall semester holds so many beginnings for the year: a fresh chance at balancing out a less than satisfactory grade point average, a time to regroup with all your friends that spread out for summer break and a time to meet all the new faces that appeared during welcome weekend. You get to exchange summer stories and attend back-to-school events. Fall semester is full of new class buzz and a sense of structure. The campus is beautiful, covered in orange and red leaves instead of the slush that the spring brings. The students are mulling around with smiles on their faces because they didn’t just take finals less than a month ago and then realize that the spring will only bring more failure while they tromp through the snow to a new class.

To those of you who disagree, I ask why you enjoy the colder of the two semesters more? Why do you enjoy the stress that comes with too many classes crunched into too few days? Do you not thrive when the football atmosphere swings into high gear? Do you not enjoy the sounds of students and fans when attending the first tailgate of the year or the buzz in the atmosphere at your first Bison football game? Fall semester takes the cake. Fall fashion, holidays, the weather and homecoming. It is all so wonderful it’s impossible to compete.

Yes, spring semester brings graduation, spring break and the inevitable summer vacation, but it also brings seasonal depression, sloppy weather and a lack of holiday-themed drinks, all of which work in the fall’s favor. You see your friends less in the spring, and it’s impossible to get out of bed. If there is even an inch of snow on the ground, it’s hard not to question your other career options as you calculate how many classes you can miss while still passing the class.

Fall semester is better simply because it is, and I’m not sorry at all that you will have no argument against that.