September Theory

From our article “What Is September Theory? The Dating Trend, Explained”: September Theory says whoever's left in your texts after Labor Day is who you'll spend the holidays with. A smarter plan than waiting on it.

Since June, how has the texting actually gone?

Not how it felt. What the thread looks like if you scroll up.

Steady. Not constant, but never a real gap.It's been thinning out since about July.There isn't much thread to scroll — too new, too on-and-off, or no one specific right now.So settled it stopped feeling like a question somewhere around July. We just text.

The first time a plan fell apart — what happened next?

A cancelled trip, a bailed weekend, a night that quietly never got rescheduled.

They rescheduled before I had to ask.It never got rescheduled and neither of us brought it up.Nothing's fallen apart yet — there hasn't been much to cancel.How much it clearly cost them told me more than the plan would have. That's roughly when I knew.

Picture the last week of December. Are they in it?

First answer, not the considered one.

Yes — and I've caught myself thinking about it more than once.Probably? I can picture it without forcing it.I can picture it. I just don't believe it.Genuinely no idea yet.

Somewhere there's a sentence about what you want. Where does it live right now?

September Theory is really a question about defaults — and about who says the sentence first.

Out loud. I've already said it to them.In my head, fully formed. It just hasn't left.Wherever their next move is. I'm waiting to see what they do.It's still being drafted.