As we end the year on the highest recorded amount of COVID-19 cases in the United States and enter “cuffing season,” we’re met with the same issues we had back on March 13th.
Is it worth meeting up with that Bumble boy you’ve been talking to for a week if it means you’ll expose your entire extended family at Thanksgiving Dinner?
This season of rising holiday cheer and positive cases leaves many people stuck in their hometowns. You’re back running into the same people from high school at the local sandwich place, wishing you were able to keep those holiday plans we all made in March because we thought, there’s just no way this will last past lockdown.
While we all want to distract ourselves from our crazy families with a winter romance, those baby steps back into the real-life dating arena is being halted across the world with harsher restrictions coming once again.
We’re all restless, but don’t lose faith yet. Here are some unsolicited and unqualified rules for how to go about finding that special someone in the middle of our worst wave of Coronavirus yet.
- Be a junior contract tracer: Just as you would with an intimate partner, know who they have seen. It doesn’t matter if it was at the high school alumni football game (masked up, of course) or at 2 a.m. in a more…compromising…situation. You don’t want to get the call while your Great Aunt is slicing up the turkey that the person you went on a date with saw someone who saw another someone who was exposed.
- As my favorite podcast Crime Junkies says, it’s okay to be rude to strangers: If someone is giving you those creepy Tinder vibes, it’s okay to ignore, have your friend fake an emergency while you’re on a socially-distanced date, or even block. Of course, we want to be respectful, but don’t push yourself.
- Take chances on those you know: As Rihanna says, finding love in a hopeless place, such as your hometown, is not entirely impossible. If you stumble across that person you always wanted to talk to in your teenage years on an app, or get to chatting in a safe manner, go for it. It’s always smarter to keep your circles smaller during times of uncertainty.
Following these will limit your chances of getting stuck in your childhood home once again, doing puzzles with your mom and baking another loaf of banana, now pumpkin, bread. The key to the dating world right now is to set your boundaries and do what’s right for you. Although the light at the end of the tunnel may seem a little far off from now, we’ll all be back having coffee dates soon enough.
Words by Olivia Hawkins
Graphic by Maria Sofia Motta