Marisol Reyes, Period 4 English, Mrs. Patterson
My favorite season is second spring. Some people say that's not a real season because on the calendar it's technically still fall, but everyone in Houston calls it second spring and I think that counts.
Second spring starts around the end of October when the first real cool front comes through. You know it's coming because the sky goes dark and it rains hard for maybe an hour, sometimes with lightning, and then the wind switches and the air changes. I don't know how to describe it except the air gets thinner. All summer the air is like wearing a wet towel over your whole body and then one morning you go outside and the wet towel is gone. My mom says it's the humidity dropping but I think it's more than that. The sky looks higher up.
The temperature drops to the 70s in the afternoon and sometimes the low 60s at night. I know 70 doesn't sound cold but you have to understand we've been on outdoor restriction since basically May. When the curfew finally lifted my little brother Tomás went out on the porch in bare feet and just stood there breathing with his arms out. He's eight so everything is a performance but I went out too and stood next to him and neither of us said anything for a minute. The concrete was cool under my feet. I can't remember the last time the concrete was cool.
I'm on the cross-country team and during the summer we practice at 5:30 in the morning which is the earliest Coach Herrera is allowed to schedule us. She checks the wet bulb reading before every practice and some days she just shakes her head and we go home without even starting. On the days we do run my ponytail is dripping by the first mile and it's not raining. My lungs feel tight and small like I'm breathing through a straw. But in second spring I can run at 4 in the afternoon and the air just goes in. It goes in so easy. I ran my fastest mile ever last October, 7:42, and I think it's because I could actually breathe.
The light is different too. In October the sun is lower so everything gets these long shadows and turns gold around 5 o'clock. I ride my bike to Hermann Park and the trees along the trail look like they're on fire but in a good way. The mosquitoes are mostly gone after the front except the little striped ones that never quit, but you can actually sit on a bench without getting destroyed. Last year on the second Saturday after the front my friend Adriana and I sat on the hill by the rocket ship playground and ate kolaches and just watched people. There were so many people out. Dogs and strollers and somebody playing guitar by the fountain. The guy who sells raspas was there and we could hear his little bell. I don't know why I remember it so much. It was just everyone being outside at the same time, like the whole city came out of their houses. It felt like a party nobody planned.
My friend Bri moved to Michigan last year and when I tried to explain second spring she was like why is that special, it's just weather. She said in Michigan fall lasts from September to November and you can go outside whenever you want. I told her about the index and the curfew hours and she thought I was exaggerating. She also said winter there is so cold your nose hairs freeze which sounds terrible so I guess every place has a season you have to get through.
My mom still makes us bring electrolyte pops to the park even in October which I think is overkill but the mango ones are really good so whatever. She also makes us wear our UV layers but in second spring I can put my Astros shirt over mine and it just looks like a normal outfit. During the summer the layers show through everything and they make this crinkling sound when you move which is mortifying.
The only bad thing about second spring is it only lasts like three or four weeks. Sometimes less. Then it either heats back up or skips straight to the cold week in January, which is honestly kind of fun because everyone acts like it's a snow day even though it's just 40 degrees. My abuela says when she was my age the nice weather started in September and went all the way to December which honestly seems impossible but she gets really serious when she talks about it so I don't argue. She says they used to just go outside whenever they wanted, any time of day, without checking anything first. I said that sounds nice and she got quiet for a second and then said "yes mija it was."
In conclusion, second spring is my favorite season because it's when everything opens up. The windows open. The parks fill up. My mom props the back door open and our dog Chaplin runs in and out like fifty times because he can't believe he's allowed. The house smells like grass and dirt and Brays Bayou which doesn't sound good but it is. It's only a few weeks but they're the best weeks. I think everyone should have a season where you can just walk outside and not think about it, and second spring is ours.
Things to follow up on...
- Houston's shrinking outdoor window: The City of Houston's own climate impact assessment projects that by mid-century, summer will extend through early October, with residents experiencing roughly 49 days per year above 97°F compared to seven in 1990.
- Schools restructuring around heat: A Hechinger Report investigation documents how districts across Texas and the Sun Belt are reshaping the academic calendar around extreme heat and smoke days, a shift that will only accelerate.
- Children's lifetime exposure projections: Research published in 2025 reveals that children born in 2020 face unprecedented lifetime exposure to heatwaves, crop failures, and extreme weather if global temperatures rise by 3.5°C by 2100.
- Climate fiction goes mainstream: A Harvard Magazine feature explores how a growing wave of authors are writing climate change not as speculative catastrophe but as the specific texture of lived, ordinary experience — stories of family, home, and belonging inside a shifting world.