Holiday flings are doomed, but they are so worth it

Holiday flings are doomed, but they are so worth it. Photo | Photosearch

What you need to know:

  • I’m not here to judge! There’s something almost magical – a Christmas miracle, if you will – about someone jetting into the country and making your regular house a holiday home

It’s about to be that time of the year. You know, when everyone is surprised that 2021 is already over, and we haven’t done a single thing that we had planned to do this year, for varied reasons. The pandemic. Or a lack of resolve. Or we never really intended to lose the weight anyway – it’s just that our employer was paying for free gym, so we signed up, and never showed up. Don’t feel bad. Most people are in the same boat with you. And actually, feeling bad now won’t help anything – it’s not like you’re going to be keeping off the celebrations for your diet. Feel bad on January 2, ok?

It's also fast approaching the time when the summer bunnies are about to land. Do you remember this phase when you were younger? When Nairobi and shags were just packed to the brim by all these people coming home to visit their relatives. Africans are the same the world over – when it’s holiday time, it’s family time. If you’re single, your aunties can talk about your lack of a ring until you are nauseous over the reunion. If you’re married, your husband will be hanging out with your brothers and avoiding the kitchen as usual, or slaughtering a goat. If you’re abroad, you’re coming back home. So yes…summer bunnies. All the people you went to school with who immediately flew out for their university degrees check into JKIA, wengs a-wenging and foreign currencies a-chinging. The city takes on an air of international je ne sais quoi – the clubs feel different because it’s not the same faces that you’ve been seeing all year round. Outfits look newer. There is a loose DJ from majuu holding gigs for this month only. The party is on.

And I have to admit, there is something about these summer bunnies. When I was younger, it was mostly because they’d been to places I hadn’t, and when they came back, they were ‘woke.’ Maybe it’s the flipping burgers, maybe it’s that touch of racism they’d experienced that I had no clue how to navigate…either way, they’d learned some things. It’s a little different now, but the factor that remains the same in my 30s is that summer bunnies mean summer romances.

I’m not here to judge! There’s something almost magical – a Christmas miracle, if you will – about someone jetting into the country and making your regular house a holiday home. I’m just here to give tips, in case a Christmas Eve tryst turns into something more than you expected. Because, unlike what Justin Timberlake intimates, it might just be summer love, you see.

There aren’t too many rules to this summer love thing. First, don’t feel bad if it doesn’t go anywhere after the heady rush of the New Year is over. Yes, you watched fireworks together, and your friends, if they’re around, can pick his face out of a crowd. Great. That isn’t grounds for attachment. So you had to buy a toothbrush because they were around so often. When they board that flight, debunk that toothbrush and everything you think it means.

And secondly, refer to the first paragraph. Christmas – or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or, as I prefer to call it, ‘December when everyone leaves and there’s no traffic’ season, can be difficult for everyone, and can even get quite lonely. If you don’t have a lot of family around or aren’t interested in church, or haven’t quite put roots into your community, you might not have a lot of places to go or things to do. Don’t feel bad if your place to go or thing to do is a transient bunny. It’s okay to have a good time where you can have it. Life is short, and many people are in the same boat as you – looking for a meaningful connection with a semblance of a conversation and a good relationship with soap. And like I said - feeling bad about enjoyment helps no one. So, enjoy yourself. Their holiday can be yours too. If it becomes more…then Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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