The Good Ones Are Back From Vacation. Your Move.

If You’re Single, September Changes Everything

Forget January. Dating Season Starts Now.

My clients are coming back.

They’re coming home from walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. From hiking and lake weekends in the Adirondacks. From sailing around the Greek islands, eating their way through Sicily, disappearing to Costa Rica, touring Japan, and spending two glorious weeks pretending they might actually move to Provence.

Others went a little less exotic: Cape Cod. Colorado. Michigan. Maine. The Jersey Shore. The family lake house. A long weekend somewhere with a pool, a book, and absolutely no intention of opening a dating app.

And you know what?

Good for them.

Summer is supposed to be a little messy. Schedules are all over the place. Kids are home. People travel. Friends visit. Weekends disappear. Half the people on dating apps seem to be answering messages from an airport.

But now everyone is coming home.

And something interesting happens every year right around now.

Dating gets busy. Really busy.

People assume January is the big dating month. Or maybe the weeks after Christmas when everyone makes resolutions and decides this is the year.

After more than 30 years in this business and 33,000 first dates, I’ll tell you something:

Late August into fall is one of my absolute favorite times to date.

Why?

It’s the grown-up version of back-to-school season.

New notebooks. New teachers. New haircut. New attitude.

Except now it's:

New photos. New profile. New people. New possibilities.

If your dating life has been on summer vacation too, here are five reasons right now is the time to get back in the game.

1. Everyone is coming back at the same time.

This matters more than you might think.

Online dating works best when there are lots of people actively participating—not just profiles sitting there collecting dust.

During summer, dating can get fragmented. Someone is in Italy for two weeks. Someone else has the kids for August. Another person is at their beach house every weekend. Someone signs onto Bumble, disappears for 12 days, comes back, answers three messages and leaves again.

Then September approaches.

People come home. Work schedules normalize. Kids go back to school. Calendars start looking like calendars again.

Suddenly people who have been saying, “I’ll deal with dating after the summer” are dealing with dating.

That creates opportunity.

2. We all still have the back-to-school gene.

You can be 42, 58 or 71. It doesn't matter.

There is something about the end of August that still whispers:

Time to get organized.

We clean out closets. Buy planners we absolutely do not need. Sign up for Pilates. Decide we're finally going to organize the garage.

And we start thinking about the things we've been putting off.

Including our personal lives.

I've watched this happen for decades. People return from summer refreshed and suddenly realize they don't want to head into another fall—or another holiday season—still complaining about dating without actually doing anything differently.

That little burst of September motivation?

Use it.

3. Fall is simply better for actual dates.

Summer dating sounds romantic.

Until you're sitting outside in South Florida in 93-degree heat wondering why you bothered doing your hair. (Yes, me).

Fall changes the rhythm.

Restaurants get busier. Cultural calendars fill up. Concerts, sporting events, festivals, gallery openings, charity events and neighborhood gatherings return. People entertain more. Friends start making plans again.

And here's something I constantly tell my clients:

You need places to go where people are.

Dating isn't just about downloading an app and waiting for your soulmate to magically appear between Wordle and Instagram.

Fall gives you dozens of reasons to get out of the house.

Take advantage of them.

4. The holidays are closer than you think.

I'm not suggesting you panic-date because Thanksgiving is coming.

Please don't.

But let's do the math.

Someone you meet in September could be someone you've had six or eight dates with by November.

That's very different from waking up December 18th, staring at your phone and deciding you'd really like someone special in your life.

Relationships need runway.

You need time to meet people. Time for bad first dates. Time for surprisingly good first dates. Time to discover that the person you weren't initially sure about is actually wonderful.

You cannot manufacture that on December 20th.

Start now.

5. A fresh dating season deserves a fresh strategy.

Here's where I want you to be ruthless.

What?

Don't simply reopen the exact same dating profile you ignored all summer and expect different results.

Look at it.

Are those really your best photos?

Does your profile actually sound like you—or does it sound like 14 million other people who “love to laugh, travel and spend time with family and friends”?

Are you on the right apps?

Are your filters helping you—or eliminating perfectly good people?

Are you actually sending messages?

Are you getting to dates quickly enough?

And perhaps most importantly:

Are you dating differently—or just dating again?

There's a huge difference.

If last season's strategy wasn't working, don't drag it into this season.

I've been doing this since before Match.com. Before Bumble. Before swiping. Before most people had email addresses.

The technology has changed enormously.

Human beings?

Not nearly as much.

People still want connection. Chemistry. Companionship. Someone who makes Tuesday night more interesting. Someone to travel with. Someone to laugh with. Someone who actually notices when they walk into a room.

And right now, a lot of those people are unpacking their suitcases too.

So consider this your back-to-school bell.

Summer was wonderful.

Keep the photos from Santorini. Frame the one from the Camino. Tell everyone about the lobster roll in Maine.

But now?

Get back to dating.

Refresh the photos. Rewrite the profile. Get on the right apps. Say yes to the dinner party. Go to the fundraiser. Join the group. Accept the introduction. Talk to me about a matchmaker—after 30+ years, I know the best ones.

And please—go on the date.

Because while everyone else is waiting until January to make dating one of their New Year's resolutions, you could already be three months ahead of them.

Dating season starts now.

And class is officially in session.

Andrea McGinty

Founder, It’s Just Lunch & 33000Dates.com

33,000+ first dates. 30+ years of seeing what actually works.

Love isn't luck. It's strategy.