For some of us, Valentine’s Day can be kind of lame. There are so many couples in love, which quickly gets annoying (even if you’re in a relationship, but especially if you’re single). Plus, conversation hearts are disgusting. Some people refer to Valentine’s Day as Singles Awareness Day, which is…also lame. Being single isn’t a bad thing; it just means you have to approach Valentine’s Day with a different mindset.
This year, my goal is to spread to the singles out there some Valentine’s Day love. Let’s make it about all types of love–platonic, familial, romantic, and beyond. And self-love–possibly the most important of all. Personally, I tend to prefer Galentine’s Day, February 13, the day you get to show your abiding love for your best girl friends. Thank you so much for granting us this holiday, Leslie Knope.
But February 14 rolls around eventually, and your Galentine’s attitude can carry over to Valentine’s Day too. Here are five tips for the greatest Valentine’s Day yet.
1. Treat yourself. Go all out. This is a day of hearts and celebration. Get a pedicure. Order a new sweater from J. Crew. Buy yourself a huge bag of Hershey’s kisses and eat them all. Go to Amelie’s and spend some extra cash on those $7 chocolate mousse cups (also known as heaven). Eat multiple pints of ice cream (this is generally always my advice, but it’s even more applicable for Valentine’s Day).
2. Bake. Seriously, baking anytime is therapeutic, but this is a particularly good time to gather up all your friends and make some delicious pink-and-red frosted cupcakes, or something. Anything! Like I said, conversation hearts are gross, but look at these adorable conversation heart-themed macarons. Who doesn’t like macarons!?
3. Craft. Paint some canvases for your blank dorm room walls. In the same vein as baking, I often find crafting weirdly therapeutic—it’s methodical, fairly easy work but also feels so productive. Relatedly, big little week is coming up for all the eating houses, so this could be a nice way to get in the spirit of giving.
4. Go out. Valentine’s Day is a Saturday this year, so it’s the perfect time to turn up. I’m assuming there will be a V-Day themed court party, but if not, throw your own party. And make some delicious pink cocktails.
5. Rom-com marathon. Last year the Union Board screened When Harry Met Sally: yes. Best romantic comedy of all time, in my opinion. Other great options are the seminal classics 27 Dresses, 13 Going on 30, Clueless, and 10 Things I Hate About You. (A lot of great rom-coms have numbers in their titles. Who knew?) There is also one of those ensemble rom-coms that’s actually called Valentine’s Day, which I’ve never seen and looks pretty bad, but hey, if there’s a day to go for it, it’s Valentine’s Day.
All of these could be perfect Valentine’s Day activities, but if all else fails, feel free to go to bed early and bask in the total, infinite joy of getting enough sleep. God knows a good night’s sleep is the best way to improve any day. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.