“I can’t wait until it becomes cool to want a relationship again” “Loyal boys wya” “Now accepting cuddle buddy applications”... how many times have you seen these tweets on your timeline this week?
Fall is upon us, which means dages, pumpkin spice EVERYTHING, and...falling in love? As the leaves start to change, so do people’s perspectives on relationships. Snuggling under covers and binging on Shameless suddenly sounds a whole lot better than sweating off your makeup while chugging Natty in a crowded fraternity house. It’s a phenomenon. Blame it on the weather, the new movies on Netflix, or our latent desire to feel close and connected someone; but either way you see it, one thing is clear… it’s cuffing season.
Even those who shudder at the idea of a relationship start to come around during cuffing season. The party hookup scene does get old at a certain point and sometimes, all a girl really wants is someone to come home to, to fall asleep next to, who knows you as more than The Girl From (enter your favorite fraternity here) Friday Night. But I think what some people fail to grasp is the inevitable seriousness that comes along with being in a real relationship. You are giving someone access to your random 2 A.M thoughts, weekly mental breakdowns, and constant sleeptalking. In turn, you’ll have to deal with their weird habits. They probably aren’t going to be the person that you thought they were and that realization comes with its own set of fears. Relationships aren’t pretty. There are fights, there are nights when you want to just end it all, and you have to be mature enough to see the bigger picture. It’s not about being right all the time and winning every fight. The glow of being right will dim if you lose the person you truly care about in the process.
The truth is, modern dating and relationships have totally failed to prepare us for a commitment. We stalk our crushes’ Snapchat to see what his plans are for the night, text in your best friend GroupMe about the hot upperclassman in our philosophy lecture, and pray that the cute boy you met last weekend texts you to hang out during daylight hours. This is modern dating, if you could even call it that. This is a far cry from the magical, mystical unicorn land of commitment. How can someone go from Twitter stalking to exclusivity in a month? If you ask me, I think every person out there, deep down (some deeper than others) want a relationship. We want to feel like there is someone out there who accepts, loves and even joins in on our weirdness. It makes us feel less alone, especially college students who may still be adjusting to life without parents and the home they knew for the past 18 years. What no one wants, however, is to feel the pain of unrequited feelings. It sucks. So, we hide. We mask the fear of commitment with jokes and the whole “ew, feelings” bull, because we all have feelings. Everyone wants to love and be loved, it is human nature. As dumb as cuffing season may be, it brings up feelings and thoughts that would probably go ignored otherwise.
