I know it’s scary, but we have to talk about it- Valentine’s Day is just around the corner!
This may be the most controversial commercial holiday I have ever seen celebrated, and for a long time, I hated it too, because I didn’t understand the point.
I remember sitting in my room thinking, Why do we have a day for couples? They have every day with each other! While it is true that Valentine’s Day has been celebrated as a day of romance since the Middle Ages, it turns out that this tradition is actually completely coincidental. Valentine’s Day was originally created to celebrate love in general, in honor of the devoted St. Valentine. While couple-y love was certainly celebrated during this time, it only became the main focus of the holiday because so many people were getting married in February. That’s literally it!
And so with this Valentine’s Day coming up, I urge you all to remember- you can use this Thursday to celebrate any kind of love you want!
I think that this message is one that is drilled into our heads early one- with the exchange of elementary school gift cards, for example, or with our parents leaving out little pink presents for us, and yet we forget about it once we get to college. Being a college student, it can sometimes feel as if everything is stressful, leading Valentine’s Day to become simply yet another source of stress.
I urge us all to stop holding ourselves to so many standards. We are already worried about grades, work, extracurricular, and social pressures- we do not have to celebrate Valentine’s Day romantically. I repeat, you do not have to celebrate Valentine’s Day romantically.
Spread some love, certainly (leave a note for your roommate, call your mother, send your grandmother a heartfelt email), but do not stress. Valentine’s Day was created as a celebration, not a hurdle, so let’s treat it that way.
So to everyone reading this, whether you are in a relationship or not, Happy Valentine’s Day!