It almost feels like an epidemic. It begins the way a fever would. One day, you find yourself shivering in your favorite winter coat and all you want is just to be snuggled in bed. Yet with cuffing season, you are always cold from the harsh weather that the fall and winter months bring. Next, your curiosity gets the best of you and you wish you were distracted with anything but the new Netflix show you started. During cuffing season, you just want someone new in your life.
Cuffing season has been perfectly described by UrbanDictionary as the time during the fall and winter months when “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.” It is the season where your friends slowly begin to distance themselves from you in place of their new boyfriend or girlfriend. The season where you cannot visit any Starbucks without witnessing first dates and you cannot go see any holiday lights without the image of two love birds. It is the best season if you are a part of it, but it can feel like the worst if you are single.
This cuffing season, I’ve had the joy of watching five of my best friends pursue senior year relationships. All the relationships, for me, were very unexpected. One day it was just the gals and I hanging out in my basement watching our favorite sappy romance movies. The next, they were the characters we despised yet slightly wanted to be. Instead of just having our girl groupchat, a new one was created with all the couples and all the “singles.” The couples make up the majority of the group which becomes very evident every time we all hang out. They all sit by each other and everything their romantic partner says comes off hilarious or sweet. Meanwhile, I sit by myself on a bean bag chowing down on a bag of chips and actually wanting to pay attention to the movie on the screen. Their relationships are not just apparent in person. I am constantly reminded through daily Snapchat stories of one of the couples hanging out and I can always count on seeing an Instagram post as I scroll through my feed before bed.
The truth is that there are many little perks of remaining single during the cold months. The biggest one is not having the stressful responsibility of finding your boyfriend or girlfriend the perfect gift. New couples have the difficult task of giving a present to their romantic partner that they may not know as well as their best friend. It is not as simple as buying your best friend a Starbucks gift card or the video game they have been raving about. Maybe you and your friends don’t even exchange gifts because you are honest about how tight money is for teenagers. Yet, for those who are “cuffed,” they almost always have to buy their romantic partner a gift. Another benefit to spending the holidays alone is just focusing on oneself. There is less incentive to check your phones for messages and more reasons to get snuggled up by a fire and read a new book. The early sunset also gives us singles a reason to get more sleep. It amazes me each day when I find myself wanting to go to bed at five in the afternoon. We have the constant pleasure of not having to worry about anything but ourselves or maybe all the food we are gonna eat during break.
I still think that cuffing season is the “most wonderful time of the year.” I love all the extra hot chocolate I drink and all the holiday sweaters I can bring back out. I may keep bumping into couples everyday in the school hallway, but it doesn’t really take away from the magic of the holidays. I just get to save a few extra bucks.
