They say that the third Monday in January is technically the most depressing day of the year.

Of course, Blue Monday is actually just the result of a pseudo-scientific equation devised for a travel company as a way to sell post-holiday getaway packages. Personally, I think today, the Tuesday immediately following Labour Day, might have Blue Monday beat on the gloom-o-meter. Let’s call it, ‘Weep all over your Keyboard Tuesday.’

Every year, the Labour Day long weekend comes and goes as a bittersweet farewell to summer. After a three-day final hurrah, it’s time to roll up those picnic blankets, stow away the denim shorts and wake up from our collective summer dream that has filled the past few months with warm breezes and cool cocktails.

Even though most of us haven’t seen the inside of a classroom in years, September will always feel like back-to-school time. A period of new beginnings, freshly sharpened pencils and pristine, blank Hilroy notebooks. Wait, do kids still use notebooks? Am I dating myself here?

The majority of individuals entering college for the first time this September were born in 1994. I know, as someone who is still under 30 I’m not technically allowed to feel old, but that fact makes me feel relatively archaic.
But I digress.

Back-to-school isn’t just one day; it’s a month-long season stretching out between the end of summer and Thanksgiving. There is a shift in the atmosphere right now — the world is getting a little more serious as the rat race begins again.

Today, you will return to normality and have the same water-cooler conversation over and over again about how quickly the summer flew by. Rationally, we all know it came and went in the exact same number of days and hours that it always has, but our collective groaning and post-Labour Day dialogue is just part of the grieving process.

In the spirit of back-to-school shopping and commerce-curing emotional anguish, I felt compelled to shop for a fresh new outfit. I tried to cheer myself up with a back-to-work ensemble, but all the burgundies and browns and classroom-themed window displays sent me running back to my wardrobe to clutch my floral dresses in despair. I can’t let go, it’s too soon.

As the vitamin D deprivation sets in, I will try my hardest to get excited for pumpkin spice lattes and apple picking, but I know that part of me will always be yearning for humid air and endless daylight.

I guess we would never appreciate the warmth of summer without the cool breeze of fall.