Remember when Valentine’s Day meant taping a brown paper bag to the front of your desk and slipping a valentine into each one of your classmates “mailboxes”? Not once do I remember a hurt feeling among my classmates. February 14th is no longer a peaceful day of exchanging cutout cards and candy hearts, it’s one of competition and consumerism.
Now that we are older, and supposedly wiser, we feel we must choose sides: pro-Valentine’s versus anti-Valentine’s. Does your position change depending on your relationship status? How bitter do you really feel if the only valentine you receive is from your mother? How broke are you willing to become, simply to find the perfect gift for your sweetheart? How desperately do you search to for a date in time for Valentine’s?
Although I feel we need a day devoted to the one’s we love, because, like it or not, we are self-indulgent creatures that are easily caught up in the chaos of our mundane lives, I do not agree with the tendency we have to assume that Valentine’s Day isfor couples only. I have survived numerous Valentine’s Days, both single and in a relationship, but for those of you who have unpleasant memories of Valentine’s—perhaps recently broken up? continually single? forever lonely?—I would like offer you some comfort. I know just how sickening lovebirds can be; they are hard to ignore on a good day, but on Valentine’s, and leading up to Valentine’s, it’s downright impossible. The modern Valentine’s has become a day to reward those in a relationship, causing us singles to feel inferior.
But what is equally important, just not recognized, is the population that is going it alone, embracing the single lifestyle and making the best of it. So, in an attempt to reclaim this holiday, as a holiday that encompasses love of all kinds—be they romantic, familial, or otherwise—I say we don’t let it get us down. We have just as much right as anyone to enjoy February 14th. Don’t let the overly chipper college students in the throes of young love hold you back.