Love Actually -Summer Means New Love

Brandt Ranj, Staff Writer
April 26, 2012
Filed under Opinion

Despite having finals planted in front of it like a giant fence, summer, the season of scraped knees and Slip ‘n Slides, is nearly upon us. For freshmen, this means having an extended period of time to trade a year’s worth of stories with high school friends while seniors go through with *ahem* “gorgonzola” and figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. What, however, does summer spell for those in relationships?

If the relationship has begun recently, it’s likely still emitting that new relationship smell. All the affectations are still in place and you can still count your partner’s truly weird habits as weird or quirky. At this stage summer might look pretty daunting: it’s an extended period of time away from someone and essentially the first big test for the relationship, but fear not.

When discussing the Christmas break there was a similar conundrum, and as I suggested then, Skype may become your best friend. Bi-weekly video chats mixed in with the standard text/picture messaging are the way to go. Sure, this won’t be the same as cuddling, but it sure is better than nothing.

For those whose relationships have weathered this before I bestow unto thee this suggestion: book a trip together. This might not seem feasible at first, but nowhere did I mention extreme extravagance. You, your partner and a sense of adventure are all that are really required, although a plan might help too.

Those in the New York Metro area could consider an overnight trip to New York City, a location bursting with fun activities for college-age students to partake in.

For those who live significantly farther away, it might be interesting to pick a city in the middle and meet there. Summer job schedules and gas prices notwithstanding, it would be an adventure for sure.

The final option is to have your love interest join in on a preexisting family vacation. This is light on the wallet and would likely make both families significantly less paranoid. Speaking from experience, this is a fun option and a great method by which to integrate yourself further into a partner’s family.

To all my fellow single folks, the Beach Boys once said “Summer Means New Love” (actually, they didn’t say it because that’s an instrumental, but I digress). Spring and summer have what the Fresh Prince describes as “a natural aphrodisiac.” Traditionally, this means a lot of hookups that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and many decisions that lead to pictures on Facebook which invariably lead to someone who wasn’t present commenting “YOLO!”

While this ultimately can be true and while a one night, one week or one month stand certainly isn’t anything to complain about, somehow it’s easier to slip into a relationship. With a bit less stress and a bit more time, anything can happen.