Oh, the wonderful world that is dating. We all do it (or at least attempt to do it). However, it can be incredibly frustrating. How are we supposed to know what to do? How are we supposed to know if we've found "the one"? How the hell does one even date?
Well, it is difficult to know what to do when it comes to another person. I mean, I hardly understand myself, let alone understand someone else. And even though not everybody falls into a specific category, I believe that each person in the world gives you a special feeling the second you meet them. When it comes to knowing a person, you won't remember specifics, but you will remember how that person made you feel. Each person we date gives us a feeling, and I recognize these feelings like how I recognize my feelings of the world.
The world I live in offers me four completely unique and completely different seasons. And I think the guys we date give us the same kinds of feelings that we get during the different times of the year.
Winter
He’s cold. He’s blunt. He tells you the honest-to-God truth. This guy is like the dead of winter when you’re left facing the harshness and bitterness of the world. Winter tells you how it is. But he’s smart and knows how a relationship works. He’s had a couple of girlfriends, some of them surviving his headstrong, frigid winds of honesty. However, he doesn’t show his emotions much -- unless he’s very passionate about them. Most of the time, winter is just cold. It's quiet, crisp and blinding white.
If you’re lucky, he’ll melt and show you how much he loves you. But right when you think his freezing fit is over -- once you think you see patches of grass and dew -- the storm comes back. It probably comes back stronger than the previous one. He might bare his soul to you, and he might take down his benumbed wall. But more likely than not, you’ll find yourself caught in his storm, confused and wondering if he’ll ever show an emotion other than his wintry mix.
You know you deserve better than this hopeless feeling. Winter happily ends, and you see something better and brighter in your future.
Spring
Spring is a breath of refreshing air. He comes into your life, and you think he’s the absolute sweetest. He blooms with beauty and bliss, but he is demure and hides from you at first. You’ve been lost in the hardness of winter for far too long, and you find yourself cut off and ignorant to the sweet things that spring is showing you. You may miss the first few acts of kindness, but then it hits you like an April rainstorm. Spring is who teaches you that you deserve more than hail and wind and darkness. He is bright and breathtaking.
Spring is serious about you. The things he says he means, and he knows the things he does you will remember forever. His flowers, ferns and trees are meant to last. But you are not good together. One minute you are shining suns and glittering grass and the next you are pouring rain and cloudy skies. The timing just isn’t right. You see yourself looking for something that is more than the sweetness behind spring. You can feel it. You can feel something better and bolder coming. You can feel that you deserve something more than the insipid spring.
Summer
Summer is the best time of your life. He teaches you how to have unbelievable fun, and he takes you on fantastic adventures. You do everything with him. And you believe that maybe summer is one of those romances that will last forever -- you wish it would never end. But sadly, summer isn’t real life. You can’t ignore your responsibilities and ambitions forever just to stay with him. He has a way with words. He can easily persuade you to call the day off of work and go hiking with him instead. Summer is hot. Literally. You’ll do anything for him, and you find yourself wondering how one person could be so perfect, so diverting, so effervescent…
However, summer has its fair share of crazy, wild thunderstorms filled with lightening and booming thunder. You are blinded by the gleaming sun and cooling falls that you make yourself believe that summer is perfect. But like all things, he is not perfect. And like all things, summer comes to an end.
Autumn
Oh, the beauty that is autumn. You see the signs -- the leaves turn a wonderful shade of orange, yellow and red. The air becomes thinner. The sky turns a certain shade of blue. You first greet autumn with friendly hellos and easygoing lunches, and you find yourself wanting more and more of him. You want more crumbling leaves, pumpkin spice and orange embers. You watch movies and go to dinner and he kisses you in the car before he drives you home. He knows just how to make you feel like everything is okay. The temperature of autumn is just right because he is just right. He keeps you warm on those colder nights when you are wearing his hoodie and sitting by a fire. He sits with you in the leaves on the warmer days.
You become comfortable around autumn. He sees you in hoodies, boots and scarves, and he tells you that you’ve never looked better. And he means it. Everything falls into place like the leaves do with autumn.
You deserve an autumn. You deserve sailor's delight sunsets and crisp nights with bright stars. Autumn gives you everything you need with just the right amount of everything you want. He calls you in on nights when you need to stay grounded. He takes you out on nights when you need to explore. Even when you find yourself scared of a cold front that might come, he always reassures you he’ll be there with his sunny and warm apple cider days.
Wait for someone who makes you feel like autumn -- like anything is possible and you’re meant to be anything you want to be.
