It’s getting cold outside, you might need someone to warm you up
Photo By: Alan Brennan
Merriam-Webster defines cuffing season as “a period of time where single people begin looking for short-term partnerships to pass the colder months of the year.” Cuffing season begins in October and ends around Valentine’s Day, although some couples can last much longer.
This pattern of new relationships begin during the winter months stems from the human instinct to cuddle up and stay warm as the seasons change. However, this cultural phenomenon has grown more casual in modern times, with less emphasis on snuggling up and more on the budding of new relationships.
For many teenagers, cuffing begins via Snapchat. People who are interested in each other start “snapping” more often, which transitions into the “talking stage,” also known as the more casual predecessor that comes before a relationship. While many have trouble making it past the talking stage, for Roosevelt High School student Dara Lauzen ’26, this is not the case.
Lauzen met her boyfriend at Laurelhurst Beach Club last year over the summer. “He’s a lifeguard there and I was there with my friend, and we were talking about how he was cute and then later I realized I had his Snap because he went to a different school but he had gone to Eckstein in sixth grade… so then I just snapped him. And then we kind of talked over Snap but then one day I just decided to be spontaneous and I asked him to come to my soccer game…and he said, ‘yeah,’ and then said, ‘let’s get food after.’ And then we got food after the game, and then that’s where it started.”
Lauzen said, “I think it was really useful last year that it happened in the fall because there was football games and dances… and then, as you’re more comfortable with each other in the spring, then it’s like, ‘Oh, now we can hang out one on one!’” Lauzen said she and her boyfriend, “like to play sports together, watch movies, go out for dinner…we kind of do everything together.”
For all the singles out there during cuffing season Lauzen offers advice: “It’ll come when you least expect it… I didn’t expect it at all and then I just kind of went for it. And sometimes if you go for it, yeah maybe it doesn’t work out, but honestly… take the first step.”
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