By: Molly Hurst
While fall has a lot to offer, I chose to go with a systematic theme: fall-related things, all categorically beginning with “f."
In addition, I included a few “Honorable Mentions” that aren’t truly “f," or truly fall, but you’ll have to wait and see until the end for those!
This time of year is incredibly busy with tests, activities, and everything else under the quickly setting sun, so it’s important to embrace everything that we can while it lasts; I hope that this list can give everyone something new to try before winter arrives with its colder temperatures and midterms.
Food - Candy Corn
Starting off slightly controversial, but with a personal favorite of mine: candy corn. Since it has a wax-like texture and almost obnoxiously sweet flavor, this one is certainly not for everyone, much less its harvest corn and pumpkin-shaped siblings. I am certainly in the minority as my favorite is the pumpkins (the more sugary wax, the better!), but I think that, despite its controversiality, candy corn is a key fall treat.
In addition, combining it with peanuts (for those without nut allergies) allows for a perfect sweet-salty balance despite how odd the idea of the two together is (trust me, I was apprehensive, but they’re actually delicious together!).
Flavor - Pumpkin
A trademark of fall is the pumpkin spice flavored goods that start showing up in late August. While not everyone likes pumpkin spice (whether for its taste or for the fact that it always comes back way too early), it is indisputable that it is a staple of fall.
From pumpkin donuts at Dunkin’ to homemade pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, there is quite a wide variety of pumpkin-flavored items for everyone: two of my personal favorites are pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins.
However, despite my clear preference for pumpkin as a seasonal flavor, that comes with a caveat: I recently tried pumpkin pie M & M’s, which I simply cannot recommend for how truly awful they were. In my opinion, the flavor combines that of a gingersnap cookie with the classic milk chocolate M & M taste, while also featuring a hint of weird, factory-created pumpkin; all in all, a bad idea (at least, to me).
Fun - Pumpkin Activities!
As previously mentioned, fall is seen through the lens of pumpkins, but not just in flavor. Even if you don’t want to eat things with the pumpkin-y, spice-y taste that so many people love, the fruit (yes, pumpkins are fruits!) has much more to offer. Two of these most popular activities are painting and carving; while carving is a lot more mess and energy, it’s a classic fall activity that doesn’t really happen any other time of year or with any other food! Painting is much easier, in my opinion, but still a challenge due to the uneven pumpkin shape and surface.
Film - Smile 2
After seeing some reviews on TikTok, I had to go see Smile 2 in theaters.
I found the first one pretty scary, so I was even more concerned as to what to expect from this one especially after talking to Paige Abessinio ‘26. She said,“I thought it was terrifying”, which is not exactly what I wanted to hear when I had already bought my tickets! After watching, I personally found that it was scarier than its original, but mainly due to the gore and suddenness of some jumpscares rather than the actual plot/events of the movie. I had some issues with the CGI quality, but it holds true to its theme and was a solid film, other than being a little confusing at times due to jumps between the person who can see smiles and real life.
Fables (books) - Overbooked
I haven’t been reading a ton this fall season, but in a recent Overbooked Book Club meeting, we came up with a list of books with TV show/movie adaptations, all of which came highly recommended.
Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Molly’s Game by Molly Bloom
The Wolf Of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
To All The Boys I've Loved Before series by Jenny Han
Honorable Mentions:
Fallbum (album) - The Secret Of Us (Deluxe) & Older (and Wiser)
I’ve found my fall influenced by numerous musical artists and albums, two largely dominating ones being deluxe forms of albums released in the spring and summer of this past year.
The Secret Of Us Deluxe - Gracie Abrams
Arguably a truly summer album as the original came out in June, the four new bonus tracks and three live versions are certainly a hallmark of my fall playlists. Gracie’s popularity has been on the rise since opening for the Eras Tour beginning in 2023, this album being her first since then. Recently, she was nominated for a Grammy for the song “us. featuring Taylor Swift,” a huge moment in her career.
Older (and Wiser) - Lizzy McAlpine
Another deluxe album, the five new songs are all incredibly lyrically significant, finishing out an already deep album. While Older is very different from her last album, five seconds flat (you might know “ceilings”, as it was a popular TikTok audio), I would highly recommend checking it out. My personal favorite on the deluxe is “Soccer Practice.”
Faun (Spanish Composition & Conversation)
In Señor Pratt’s Spanish Composition and Conversation class, we recently watched the magical realism movie “Pan’s Labyrinth”, a movie featuring a fictional faun (a mythological creature that is part human and part goat) in addition to a whole lot of violence as it takes place during the Spanish Civil War. Not a fall movie, but I had to feature it nonetheless!
Fall certainly has much more than just what I included above, but these were a couple things that have dictated my fall so far. As you go through the rest of this season, I hope that you can enjoy a few things from the list and make this part of your year that much better, regardless of if it is your final fall at Tower Hill as a senior or if you’re just starting out as a freshman!
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