While I’ve been in a relationship or two, I have always been single on Valentine’s Day. Maybe there is a little twinge of sadness in me, but this year I’m actually excited to not have a significant other of some variety. It never fails to amaze me how many single people I hear complain about Valentine’s Day, or in single people lingo Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D for sort). The thing is, Valentine’s Day is overhyped for couples. We correlate V-Day as a celebration for love exclusively in romantic relationships, which means that us single people are left with sadness. Well no more, I’m calling it on this one. As hard as it may sound, the moment you separate the commercial holiday with your love life is when you stop having a negative attitude towards both V-Day and S.A.D.
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Simply put, your life is not defined by your relationship status. Whatever yours is, you have to put yourself first. I know it sounds a little selfish, but if you are happy with yourself, with the skin you’re in, with your success or work on fixing your failures, good things will come to you. I’m humbly admitting that my mom was right all along, the energy you put out in the world is what you will get back. This Valentine’s Day, take a second to celebrate yourself because you deserve it.
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Valentine’s Day in the U.S. is incredibly focused on romantic relationships and this is part of the problem. If we look at the way gifts and experiences are advertised, they’re all marketed toward that person who’s looking to buy something for their “someone special.” What if single people decided that their someone special was themselves? I know, revolutionary! Tom and Donna in Parks and Recreation seriously got it right: treat yo’ self. What if that someone special were your best girl friends? Have a wine night, get that one pound bar of chocolate from Trader Joe’s, and have yourselves a sexy men movie night.
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For all of you reading this who are in relationships, congrats. Great for you! I’m not trying to take away from your romantic celebration, not at all. Single people just need to wake up a little bit and realize that they can celebrate Valentine’s day without being disappointed. Reason being, being single is awesome, it just gets a bad rap.