As we know, cuffing season is upon us. A time where a lucky few cozy up with their new SO and gawk at each other over limited edition PSLs. Meanwhile the rest of the population is clinging to their North Face in hopes of generating synthetic warmth as they face the cold, bitter front of singledom. I’m not going to lie to you, this Cuffing Season is an aggressive one. It’s like the apocalypse of Cuffing Seasons. FB official relationships, recurring snapchat cameos, and even photo tagging on instagram make it abundantly clear that two people have claimed one another. No corner of the social media realm is left untouched! And it doesn’t stop there – now that we’re older, shiz is getting SERIOUS. Engagement rings are popping up like daisies in the spring (which is ironic because that’s when all of these couples will be breaking up)!
Sometimes I find myself thinking, “Will I be the last single girl standing? Did I miss the facebook invite to this year’s cuffing season? Am I being punished for pressing ‘no tip’ when I got that boba last week?” Thankfully, I’ve shaken away those absurdities and remembered my own advice to help keep my health and sanity during these trying times. Do do not fret my loves – if you follow these tips and tricks, I promise you can make it through this Cuffing Season!
1. Stop Settling
First things first, stop settling. Let’s cut out the part of cuffing season where we cling to any and every boy we meet in attempts to drag out a relationship way past it’s epiration date. The boy who always bails, the boy who only texts you when he’s bored or drunk, the boy who you haven’t even saved his number in your phone; they cuh-learly have to go! These boys are nowhere near up to par with what you need, stop settling immediately.
Cuffing season is NOT the time to start lowering your standards and opening the floodgates for boys to walk all over you and take advantage of your time. Hold true to the standards and qualities you have previously decided to seek out in a S.O. Don’t try to make something out of nothing, it’s not worth your time. It will be so cliche (and not in a good way) when Christmas rolls around and you have to delete all the photos of them off of your insta only to be followed up by a filtered selfie with some Beyonce “Best Thing I Never Had” quote. Hold tight to your standards girl, that’s all we got in this concrete jungle.
Cuffing season flings are not like Bed Bath and Beyond Coupons – they expire.
2. Self Detox = More Self Confidence
No, I don’t mean “detox” like that juice cleanse we’ve all tried but gaev up on half way because the hunger made us crazy. I mean detox like start doing things that are going to make not only your body and soul feel great. Take care of Y-O-U during this cuffing season. Now is the best time to be selfish! Once you start doing good, you’ll start feeling good and looking good!
I know it is literally the worst “advice” I could give but start working out. After you get over the initial hump of your mind fighting your body’s need for activity, you’re going to get into it! You’ll feel so much more confident knowing that you’ve been putting extra time and care into your body. The “weight goals” can take severaaalll seats becasue that is not what we are focusing on right now. We are focusing on giving our body the care and attention it needs.
Next, if you can, start cooking for yourself. Bust out those Martha Stewart skills, not advised for stock market purposes, but definitely for getting crafty in the kitchen. Wine and dine yourself – your body will appreciate some home cooked meals!
Lastly, sleep and water, sleep and water, sleep and water. Quick life hack to making yourself feel healthy and confident – drink more water and sleep more hours. That next episode of Stranger Things can wait until the morning. It’s not going anywhere, and *spoiler* neither is Eleven, is no one else stoked that she is finally confirmed for season 2???
Working out will leave you stronger and healthier than you were pre-cuffing season.
3. Go Solo
The downfall of most city girls and socialites is their inability to embrace silence. It’s their achilles heel. We are social by nature and solitude is sometimes our biggest fear. Let’s not follow in the footsteps of so many before us. Instead let us take this opportunity that was so graciously provided to us by cuffing season and get better at being alone. It is so important for your peace of mind to be able to be by yourself. Read this next line carefully: This does NOT include binge watching netflix, shacked up in your studio apartment, scraping the remnants of your cookie butter. We’ve all been there but I think we can agree that it is not the look we’re going for. “Going Solo” is about enjoying your life, independent of anyone else. For example, going to dinner at your favorite restaurant by yourself because you want to. It is anything that involves you doing things because you want to regardless of if you can convince the crew to tag along. Having these independent moments in life and really appreciating them, will not only help you survive cuffing season but also elongate your career as a City Girl. A City Girl prides herself on being well rounded.
You don’t need anyone else to do the things you love! You are a City Girl Queen!
4. Embrace the Mush
Cuffing season is not the time to act constantly disgusted by all of the couples and the mushy moments it inevitably produces. You are no love Grinch! Just because you don’t have an S.O. doesn’t mean you have to say every act of love disgusts you. On the contrary, embrace the mush! No one will judge you if you watch that Nicholas Sparks movie on netflix where Zac Efron plays a troubled, soft spoken soldier returning from war with so much love to give and he’s finally found the girl he’s been looking for. And no one will say anything if you shed a slight tear over that instagram video with the wedding proposals – it’s allergy season and the pollen count is at a record high!! It’s okay to give in to the love dovey things. Nobody likes a Bitter Betty and that’s certainly not how you will survive cuffing season. Besides, by the time your ice cold heart thaws, it’ will be Valentine’s Day and no one likes a wet blanket. Do yourself (and everyone else) a favor and spare us the anti-love tweets and insta posts, we geetttt ittttt. Just give into the season already.
Embrace the season and all of it’s mush.
Until next time City Girls, happy cuffing season!