For some reason, being a native of Boston for the past 21 years makes me feel ordinary and even boring amidst my geographically diverse classmates who come from India, Turkey and Kalamazoo. However, the onset of fall each year transforms this shame into unabashed pride in my hometown. Boston in the fall is really the city at its best and also the ideal time to get to know it a little better.

Although woods are a rarity in and around Harvard Square, even by taking brisk walk along the Charles, you can immerse yourself in the Boston of burnt orange leaves, sunny days and chilly nights and the occasional sniff of burning wood. The physical beauty conjures up images of pilgrims, Puritans and preachers. Boston in the fall can be a symbol for rugged individualism; man conquers nature and reaps the harvest fruits and vegetables for which he says thanks in late November. Hay-rides, horses and apple-picking are all lingering nostalgia for Boston's agrarian past.

Boston in the fall is really a city upon the hill. But the religious fervor is not only limited to a renewed commitment to church-going. The religious ethos of Boston can be best felt outdoors. At Walden Pond, surrounded by basic natural elements--trees and water--you can imagine the epiphanies of Thoreau. Orchard House, home to Alcott family, Emerson House and The Fruitlands in Harvard, Mass., the religious communal farm of these New England thinkers and other transcendentalists, represent a quasi meeting of the minds, a convergence of the intellectual and the spiritual. The town of Salem and its gruesome but fascinating legacy of witches and trials conveys radicalism and religious fervor to an extreme, well-documented in a museum and various monuments.

Most of all, Boston in the fall exudes a sense of history. In addition to the Old North Church, Old North Bridge, Boston Common and other revolutionary war memorabilia, the history of Boston encompasses the city's social and cultural influences. The mills of Lowell, the delicious Italian aromas of the North End, the blocks of Irish pubs of South Boston, noodles galore in Chinatown and the fish markets of Fanueil Hall all testify to the varied waves of immigrants and newcomers who have left their mark on Beantown.

Unfortunately, the beautiful weather, the appealing sights, smells and sounds will not endure. As each night gets a little colder and the impetus to leave our Harvard bubble decreases, Boston's fall mystique soon fades.