I’m not sure if it is the cold weather that makes bundling up with another seem nice or the general feeling of sentimentality, but for some reason the cold winter months allow some people to deem winter “cuffing season.”
Urban Dictionary defines cuffing season as “During the Fall and Winter months people who would normally rather be single or promiscuous find themselves along with the rest of the world desiring to be "Cuffed" or tied down by a serious relationship. The cold weather and prolonged indoor activity cause singles to become lonely and desperate to be cuffed.” I say, a new season should not equal a new serious relationship, and here are five concrete reasons why.
1. Who wants to go through the hassle of introducing a new significant other to family and friends during the holiday?
With Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and I’m sure numerous other religious and cultural holidays during the winter seasons, all of these holidays equal a lot of time with family, friends, and loved ones. If you enter into a serious relationship during cuffing season, you or the other person may feel obligated to introduce one another to family and friends.
If you have a big, blended family like I do, that may mean introducing her or him to three sets of grandparents, three parents, three siblings, a dozen aunts and uncles, and a few dozen cousins. Save yourself the trouble, and keep it in your pants until Martin Luther King Day (or just keep your relationship on the DL throughout the holiday season).
2. A new boyfriend or girlfriend means spending money on gifts and holiday activities. Save your money.
A key feature of the holiday season is gift giving and receiving. From a purely economical standpoint, a new girlfriend or boyfriend may mean shelling out a couple hundred bucks that you don’t have on presents she or he may not even like. A new relationship is fun and exciting, but trying to find an appropriate gift that accurately shows how you feel compared to how little time you have spent with this person is difficult and stressful. Save your money, and just be alone a little bit longer.
3. It’s too cold to go out, and a new relationship means activities.
Although it is cold, a new relationship means going out to dinner and dates. Like my earlier point, this means spending more money on activities. Also, it is too cold to be going out and doing things. Stay inside, and talk to some potential babes on the internet like Kip from Napoleon Dynamite.
4. A new season should not equal a new boyfriend or girlfriend.
Just because the weather is getting colder and you are putting more clothes on to do life does not mean you suddenly need to get in a serious, committed relationship. Don’t let societal pressures make you do things you are not emotionally and mentally ready for, as entering a serious relationship is serious adulting business that not everybody, especially college students, have enough time for.
5. You don’t need a significant other. You are fine all on your own.
In an age of social media, when seemingly everyone you know from high school or college is getting engaged, married, having kids, or just generally living your best life; getting a significant other seems like the next step to make your life seem happy or as good as you perceive others to be that constantly post about their seemingly amazing lives. Love yourself, and when the right person comes along, you’ll just know. Don’t actively go out looking for something. When the time is right, everything will fall into place.
