It’s the most terrifying time of the year everyone, and no I am not talking about midterms – I am talking about cuffing season. According to the most reliable source for any university student…Urban Dictionary says: “During the Fall and Winter months people who would normally rather be single find themselves along with the rest of the world desiring to be ‘Cuffed’ or tied down by a serious relationship”.
So basically, there you are walking around thinking that you are the only single person in all of Laurier Brantford and are constantly fighting the urge to cry every time you see someone hugging their significant other. Trust me, I know it sucks; it is an amazing feeling to have someone in your life who is obligated to deal with all your crazy, but a discovery I made recently is that the only person you can really count on is yourself and that is the most important person you should love as well.
As university students, we have way too many things on our plate at all times. Between our friends, family and even the haters constantly demanding our attention we are already stretched thin and stressed out more than ever before. Then, to torture and make our lives so much harder, someone decided to throw Brantford Foundations courses into the mess. With all of these factors, the stress that we endure on a daily basis results our mental and physical health being the first to get worse. I’m sure everyone can remember at least one of their many panic attacks and everyone (this is directly hating on myself), just needs to admit that the only reason we eat Pizza Pizza with creamy garlic dip at 2 am is because we’re eating uncontrollable feelings.
As fun as they may be and with all the benefits of being “cuffed”, we fail to understand just how much work relationships are. They require commitment, time, communication, trust and patience just to name a few, and for a relationship to work both parties have to be on the same page about all of these things. The biggest thing is that you have to ask yourself the question: how are you going to give someone the responsibility of making you happy if you don’t even know what makes you happy? Without knowing how the relationship will succeed, you would not be able to communicate about it, you would not be able to know how much time needs to go into it, and you would not know how much patience you would need for it. Without any of these things, a very positive thing can turn bad quickly.
At the end of the day, there are many quotes that all of us have seen on our Instagram explore pages: “Love yourself before loving someone else”, “You can’t be 100% happy with someone else unless you are 100% happy with yourself”. As cheesy and ridiculous as they may sound, they need to be taken seriously. Take it from someone who has had her share of heartbreak, live your best INDEPENDENT life, go to that NV night, make new friends or get closer with the ones you have. Grow into the best possible version of yourself and then someone will come along with the best possible version of themselves, and just like every single Disney fairytale, you’ll live happily ever after.