By: Ruisi Liu
Alright, we get it, it’s cuffing season. You heard it in the halls. You scrolled past the hashtag on Instagram. You’ve seen it happen to your peers and friends.
“It’s cuffing season,” they all say. You acknowledge it as you sip your warm coffee. Yes, cuffing season – to be, at last, settled into a serious monogamous relationship.
As the weather gets colder, it’s the ever-so-romantic prime time for us homosapiens to attract and pursue an ideal mate. Some are cuffed and in love, some are hopeful, some don’t get it, and some dread it.
Personally, I don’t get it. The pressure of finding love in university is already high enough. We hear it all the time: your parents fell in love in university or that you’re supposed to be dating someone at some point during the four years.
But just how much of that is true? Where does the pressure come from? Why do you suddenly have the urge to text that cute person that you didn’t care much about from a few months ago?
I asked my group chat of friends on Instagram, and this was their explanation:
“Summer is for messing around, but winter is for cozy coffee dates and sitting by the fireplace.”
“Summer, I wanna smash, winter I wanna hold hands.”
“Got to secure that relationship.”
“Cuffing season? More like hunting season!”
“Cold does make me want it more cause cuddles keep me warm, and I can keep em warm too.”
The blame is on the weather. It’s natural. Biologically, our bodies slow down during the winter times. We generally become more drowsy as it gets darker outside, and since our body temperature drops, it’s an evolutionary survival instinct to have someone with us.
Every day, Tinder’s matching rates increase as proof of the collective winter loneliness. According to the company’s statistics, Tinder gets 1.6 billion swipes per day, with over 20 billion matches, with its prime peak at 9:00 p.m. for the most active swiping activity. Most of Tinder’s demography are university students, and 41 per cent find they use the app a lot more in the chillier months between October to March.
If you’re not cuffed, don’t worry! According to Statistics Canada, most Canadian women marry at 29 years old, while men at 31. They also report that 38 per cent of first marriages end in divorce.
The cuffing season anxiety felt by most university students ages 18 to 22 is really unnecessary. If you’re cuffed, enjoy it, and hopefully, you two are together on the basis of love and attraction and not from a case of loneliness or cuffing season FOMO.
And if you’re not cuffed, trust me, you will find love in time, whether that happens during cuffing season or not.
In the meantime, drink warm tea, crank up the heater, layer those sweaters and take care of yourself. Turn on YouTube or Netflix. It’s 2019; we don’t need another human body beside our own to warm us up – we have weighted blankets for that. They’ll do the trick.
To warm your heart, perhaps start volunteering at homeless shelters and animal shelters and serve meals to spread love.
You’ve got this, my love.