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UCLA | Wellness > Sex + Relationships

Why Summer Flings Are Deeply Flawed

Shayna Freedman Student Contributor, University of California - Los Angeles
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCLA chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Summer is often seen as a time to relax and focus on yourself. One popular activity many young people like to take part in is to have a summer fling. The idea is to find someone who will agree with you that the relationship you undertake with that person will be within the confines of the summer season. After summer, you go your separate ways and each of you speaks to your friends about having had a brief love affair. I personally find summer flings to have many faults.

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Instead of taking up a summer fling when coming into the summer as a single person, maybe approach the summer being fine with life as a single person, or date casually or not at all. Hooking up may be fine if you are comfortable with that, and maybe, if you are going on vacation, you may meet a cutie far from home. Life is funny that way, as we know. However, let’s not put a summer fling into a different category than a hook-up. The most important thing, though, is to make sure you are being honest with yourself and with the people you are seeing casually. Also, do not be afraid to fall in love, either. Summer feels so quick and it is scary to commit to things with school around the corner. If you find love, don’t view it as something with an expiration date, but rather a challenge worth taking to continue a valued relationship with someone which happened to begin during your time off. 

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If you wish to live out a summer fling, make sure to have boundaries with that person and rules that are established before feelings complicate the relationship. You know how you feel, but you don’t really know how the other person feels and neither of you knows how you’ll feel as summer ends. For that reason, the best advice may be to use your time off from school to look within yourself and figure out why you even think you need a summer fling.  Maybe it is better to learn whether you are ready for a relationship, starting with that all so important relationship with yourself. 

Shayna Freedman

UCLA '21

Shayna Freedman is an English major at UCLA. She hopes to become a screenwriter for film and tv after she graduates. Her favorite genres are horror and romance. Shayna is often ranting about feminism when not writing about anything relating to nerd culture. Be careful, she might end up going on an hour rant about the politics in the superhero genre. You can find Shayna writing, reading at the beach, finding the best brunch spots, or out on adventures with her friends.