It is Spring and, as a friend says, amathanga ajabulile (the thighs are happy). Spring usually comes with quite interesting and more dramatic social changes than probably most of the other seasons. There seems to be a collective change in mood amongst most people, there’s a kind of fresh anticipation as trees throw bouquets like confetti as we wait to wed summer. I started thinking about this when a female acquaintance mentioned that she’s “happier” in spring. But why? Why do seasons and seasonal changes affect us so much, emotionally and socially?

Let’s start with autumn. Autumn is the Tuesday of seasons, just there nje, lurking, creepy like. It never really features in conversations except in sad ass poems by dumpees. We kind of kick, push and coast along till Winter’s iced fingers send chills down the spine. Then it starts, ample sisters being called up like it’s a clearance sale at the cuddle store. It seems Winter is a solitary season that bullies single folk. Status after status, tweet after tweet, “my bed is cold :(”, as if you actually wear a person like pj’s. “Love is different is winter”, I was once told. With reduced outdoor activities, one has to get by with more intimate forms of socialising, I suppose relationships are realer in winter. Miss me with all that “people have more sex in winter” vibe, if you run game like Bafana Bafana in summer, why you expecting to win the World Cup in winter? You will Safa.

Other than relationships, winter also seems to have a more negative personality, for most people. People are less relaxed, less enthusiastic. The colours are muted, life seems to be hushed almost, the volume turned down. There’s nothing as terrible as ‘weather’ small talk in winter. It’s cold. Full stop. Can we move along? We wear complaints like our layered clothes, bitching like scarves, you’ve had it up to your neck with so many things. So we hurry along to get to some place or other trying to avoid interaction and the bite of the chill. I’d imagine guys have to up their foreplay game too. To wade through all those layers and get to the butchery without fumbling (or getting cock-blocked by those 1000 button, skin tight denims) and not losing her interest, this should not be underestimated.

Then comes Spring. It seems that Spring demonstrates just how connected to nature we are. The air is fresher, it seems easier just to be. But it’s always the sense of anticipation that grips people, as though something ‘good’ is about to happen. Friendship circles open up, “this is my friend so and so” is heard more often than “let’s just stay home”. I hear there’s a flux in couples too. More people hook up, more people are looking, more people getting dumped (and writing poems about Autumn). Oh then there’s the whole gym thing and Virgin Active doesn’t live up to its name.

Summer, ironically, dates December and we just love these two. We lose our damn heads when they come around. In Winter, weekends are those two days you don’t go to work or school. In summer, weekends are cute mini holidays. I think women expect themselves to look more beautiful in summer. I have the same thoughts as the Bafana Bafana dude on this, but I think we can all agree that summer is for women’s bodies and men’s eyes. They want to be seen and we most definitely want to see. We’re on that chameleon steez, using ALL the mirrors in the car, word is ‘observations’. Now, if relationships are “realer” in winter what are they in summer? I’ll definitely say that there are more trophy couplings that happen, because so much of summer is about being seen. Either way though, summer is just a dope season for many more sentimental reasons so let’s just allow. Drinks on ice, shades and summer dresses, shout out to easy access.