Fall is the season of pumpkin spice, Halloween, and the dying of summer. Oddly enough, during the time of year where everything is in decay, there’s a phenomenon known as “cuffing season” that begins to take place, once the leaves start to float to the ground and the air starts to chill. 

Cuffing season is known as the time between the start of Fall and the end of Winter where single people are most likely to end up in a romantic fling. This Urban Dictionary term has become a part of common language within modern generations through memes, Youtube videos, and music. The term itself comes from the idea of being metaphorically handcuffed or “cuffed” to your significant other. Despite the seeming permanence found in the name, it seems that feeling starts to fade when the leaves start to grow.

According to data collected from Facebook, people tend to change their relationship status to “taken” between the months of October and February and then change it back to “single” once March hits. Yet at the same time, birth statistics show that most births happen during the summer, which means they’re conceived during the winter.

Let’s get down to brass tacks, why does this exist? Was this just a fun idea made up by a wannabe Shakespearean or is this founded on any science? Some students from FHS agreed with the idea that the season is the result of a mixture containing holiday pressures and loneliness via snow-in. 

One student from FHS described it like this: “I feel like there’s a possibility that you’re coming off of this high in the summer and now you’re just going back to regular life and then maybe regular life is too boring and you need something to spice it up”

So if you ever find that independent version of yourself dead in a ditch and replaced with a hopeless romantic, you know that you’ve been “cuffed” by cuffing season.