Like is in the air

Ah, spring. The weather is gorgeous, the breeze is just enough to give cooling relief and the flowers are blooming. And what is that I smell… a scent of sweet perfume. Is it the giggle of girls I hear… Mmmm, my imagination is running wild…\nIt’s spring and like is in the air.\nNo, not love. Love can keep you warm in winter. Spring is fraught with like. I mean, “Nice skirt, let’s go have sex,” like. In spring, as a result of our society’s associating bright skies and pretty flowers with love, people all across the Midwest are probably susceptible to looser sexual discretion.\nAnd why not? A trip back through history reveals that myth has long taught that spring is the time when women and men have trouble controlling their libidos. Remember the Greek goddess of spring, Persephone? Hades couldn’t keep his hands off of her, kidnapped her, and proceeded to the stacks of the Herman B Wells Library. Okay, that last part is still widely debated, but you get the gist.\nA study conducted at Abington Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania found that in the four seasons, summer and spring revealed more births than winter and fall, evidencing that there is a seasonal affect on the number of unplanned pregnancies. Like has gotten you through spring and you, like many others, have avoided pregnancy. Congratulations. Now don’t press your luck into fall. As we creep toward the end of April and towards summer, you may want to consider the possibility that a little duplicate you could be running around this time next year. That would cut your college days a little short. Time to get a job and start providing for an unexpected family. But, hey, that’s what like is all about.\nSo if love is what you think you’re feeling for that girl or guy at your Little 500 grill out (a.k.a. drinkfest), put down the bottle of vodka and take off the beer goggles. Like all you want, but leave love for a little later when you’re a little more sober. Like leads to sex too, if that’s what you’re after. And saying love when you just mean like might lead to babies or STDs. Remember those hazards before confusing the two. People who like are probably safer with some sort of birth control. Like condoms.\nDon’t think that like is all there is, though. Love has a tendency to show up in late summer and take hold in the middle of fall, when a connection can be made. If love equals warmth we need it more in the winter and fall anyway. But this spring, that smell in the air is like, and it should be treated as such. And to all those partners out there who might be calling for a little like when you aren’t so interested, there’s always this explanation:\nLook, I like you – but I’m not in like with you.