singles season

It’s fairly commonplace to despise Valentine’s Day if you’re single, but it actually may be a time to rejoice. You see, Valentine’s Day marks the official end of couples season: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and then the dreaded National Singles Awareness Day a.k.a. February 14. What follows, however, is the opening day of singles season – a lovely time of year spanning most of the spring, summer, and fall and boasting holidays that are actually fun.

First comes the general interlude of spring fever. Even the most jaded among us can’t deny a certain annual stirring when the weather starts to warm, the clothes start to thin, and your step starts to spring. This time of year is all about the new, the fresh…the unattached. So show some skin and get out there.

Once you’ve met that new cherry blossom and things start to get juicy, there’s no better time to get away than Memorial Day weekend. If your spring flings haven’t quite blossomed to the romantic getaway stage, it’s still an excellent time to travel. You may see some families traveling over this long weekend, but for the most part, the kids are still in school and there are elaborate summer vacation plans to save up for. Being single, you don’t need to arrange your travel plans around anyone, so off you go to the destination of your choice.

Summer generally takes this freedom to another level. Whereas parents are now faced with children who don’t have school to attend for a month or three and the demands of providing 24/7 entertainment, you can come and go as you please. If you’re lucky enough to have a job with summers off, you can up and move to another state or another country if you so choose. If you only have weekends to play, you can use your disposable income to rent a beach house. Or you can just spend all day lying naked in front of the air conditioner if you feel like it.

Another fact to recommend summer is that it is generally holiday-free. What you have instead is often a series of weddings. While these events can often be excruciatingly painful, they can also be a hotbed of potential romance or at least a chance to mingle, to travel, and to play the role of glamorous guest that the single woman can vamp to perfection. Then, of course, there’s Fourth of July – the holiday whose symbol epitomizes what some of these marrying couples sacrifice for stability.

When summer ends, it’s time to go back to school – something singles can do without arranging a babysitter or soothing the ego of a neglected spouse. This year alone, my single friends have studied American literature, life drawing, HTML, grant writing, improvisational comedy, print making, furniture design, and Thai cooking. If nothing else – and there’s plenty else to recommend lifelong learning – they are the people you want to meet at a cocktail party.

The rest of singles season brings the holidays that are all about putting your goods on display and making your own adventure: Halloween and Sadie Hawkins Day (November 10). It’s fitting that the singles season ends with a holiday that can be seen as encouragement for women to take charge of their lives – to be proud and choose wisely. By this time, maybe it’s not such a unwelcome prospect to relax and sit the next few holidays out.