Ask almost any person you know and they will tell you that Valentine’s Day is terrible. It is the absolute worst.
As a full disclaimer, I am writing this as somebody who has been in every situation you can possibly be in on February 14th: I have been single on Valentine’s Day (for many, many years), I have been broken up with on Valentine’s Day, I have had midterms on Valentine’s Day, and I have spent the entire day forgetting that it was Valentine’s Day or being painfully aware of Valentine’s Day. I once bought myself a heart shaped doughnut at Tim Horton’s on Valentine’s Day, much to the amusement (and sheer pity) of the cashier. This year I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful partner to spend the day with, but yes, like many of you, he hates the day, too.
While it is important to recognize the commercialization aspects of this day (and honestly, what pseudo-holiday hasn’t been commercialized?), I think it is also a great day to affirm a lot of pretty fantastic things.
If you’re single on Valentines Day, take a step back. Affirm that yes, you’re single, but there is so much empowerment in that statement alone. Accepting the fact that you are single opens so many doors to so many possibilities. You can virtually do whatever you want at anytime, whenever! Want to have pizza for dinner? You can have two pizzas for dinner and you can decide whatever toppings you want because guess what! There isn’t a soul there to tell you that they don’t like mushrooms.
I also like the movement of Galentine’s Day. Galentine’s Day, taken from the very hilarious television series Parks and Recreation, encourages an all-girls breakfast with friends on February 13th. Recently on my various social networking feeds I have seen many of my female friends sharing homemade gifts with one another in order to celebrate this day as well. Why not use both Galentine’s and Valentine’s Day to empower your female friends and affirm your collective radness? Wear the brightest lipstick you can find, send the day together, buy each other heart shaped cookies and end the night drinking red wine.
I fully believe that we should stop using Valentine’s Day as an excuse to mope about being single and treat it as what it really is: one day, in 365 days, where red is a relevant colour. Instead of hating it, become empowered. Being single is a damn cool and super worthy thing to be and celebrating your female friendships is cool, too! If you’re in a relationship, do romantic things with and for your partner every day! How about, for once, we give Valentine’s Day the benefit of the doubt and truly appreciate self love and friendship …and carry on these values every other day, too.
Picture Source:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/f91f1fb41a05da6c2277397911106d9a/tumblr_n0wcb…
http://25.media.tumblr.com/1f4e941156551f9c8494968b7faf6475/tumblr_mi7ya…