It’s that time of year again, Rams! And no, I’m not talking about the cooler weather, the flannels and cozy fall outfits, the haunted houses and horror movies, or even a certain pumpkin spiced Starbucks drink (although those are definitely some perks of the season).
If you’ve ever seen How I Met Your Mother (season 8 episode 5 to be more specific, although I would definitely recommend binge watching the entire series if you haven’t already), you’ll probably be familiar with a little phenomenon called the ‘autumn of breakups.’
When I first watched that episode, I definitely thought it was just a really creative and funny way for the writers to break Ted Mosby and pals up from their clearly unfit significant others. When 280 characters or less of some fellow Midwesterners I follow saying something like, “Ope, it’s about that time for all the freshmen to start breaking up with their high school sweethearts again” started popping up all over my Twitter feed this month, I realized the autumn of breakups is actually a very real phenomenon, especially for college freshmen.
So, since I went through my own experience breaking up with my own high school sweetheart around this time my freshman year, which confirms that this is a stereotype for a reason, I thought I’d share my do’s and don’ts for coping with breakups this fall.
Do:
- Lean on your friends, family, and other resources on campus for support—I highly recommend taking advantage of the counseling services with their awesome staff of on call counselors and free counseling sessions whenever you’re in need of some extra understanding or support!
- Get out and meet new people, make new friends, join a club—do things that’ll keep you busy and get you through the tough period of transition a little easier!
- As many things that make you happy as possible—even when your workload gets crazy, try to make some time to go to the gym and get some of those much-needed endorphins, watch your favorite show or movie, have some chocolate, and make sure you’re eating and sleeping enough!
Don’t:
- And I mean absolutely do not under ANY circumstances box dye or cut your own hair! This might seem like a pretty obvious one, but as someone who spent six months with her hair colored varying shades of orange trying to box dye from brown to blonde AND cut her own bangs after her breakup, I’m telling you a lot can happen during a life crisis—if you want to make a change I definitely recommend splurging and going to a salon instead.
- Go to the gym or go on a diet just to get a revenge body or impress your ex—go to the gym and eat healthy because it makes you feel good and the rest will happen naturally, AND you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it all for yourself and your own health!
- Put any time limits on yourself when it comes to getting over the breakup—everyone goes through things like that in their own time and it’s okay to have feelings about it for as long as you need to. If you’re lucky like me, you’ll have a special few family and friends that give you the time you need and they’ll make up for the ones who get tired of listening, but the counseling center is always an option too!
So, if you’ve fallen victim to the autumn of breakups this year, try not to let it ruin your spooky season altogether (and seriously whatever you do, do NOT touch your hair!), but if you’re one of the lucky ones who haven’t then I applaud you and your annoyingly successful relationship.