During my college years, autumn was more than a change of weather — it was a festival of energy and possibility. When I was not hurrying across the city, I wandered beneath the ginkgo trees of central Seoul's Gwanghwamun, their fan-shaped yellow leaves spinning like tiny dancers before settling on the ground. On the ground, the sight was no less extravagant: maples blazing with fire, oaks turning copper, birches trembling in gold. Trees remind us of resilience, yet they also underscore our mortality. Shin Freedman is a retired academic who now writes about aging, solitude, technology and the quiet revolutions of modern life.