Why Back-to-School Season Feels Like the New Year—Even for Adults

I was sorting through my books recently, as my husband and I finally—after four years of marriage—have new shelves that would accommodate most of our combined libraries. Did we really need two copies of The Great Gatsby? Probably not, I decided, as I flipped through a well-worn edition from those long-ago high-school days.

Perhaps because I was already thinking about the coming new season, it only took me a moment to find the passage: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall,” Jordan tells Daisy in Chapter Seven.

Spoken by a secondary character in a Very Famous Novel full of memorable lines, this particular quote isn’t among Fitzgerald’s greatest hits, said Jackson Bryer, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Maryland and the president of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society. But that’s a hallmark of great literature, he added—even minor moments can resonate with individual readers and carry weight.

So why do these words speak to me? Why does autumn, which could reasonably be considered as foreshadowing only the dark days of winter, feel like a beginning? And could it actually be beneficial to