Valentine’s Day gets a bad rep and, to be completely honest, that’s understandable. It’s essentially a holiday created by major retailers to milk the public dry, feeding off a combination of guilt, social pressures, and Lifetime rom-com ideals. Ideally, there’s not even a real purpose for the day. It would seem that if you love someone you’d be doing things for them all year, so there’s no real need to set aside one specific day a year. Buried, however, under layers of of gooey mush, inflated prices, and ridiculous standards, and smothered by the overwhelming weight of capitalism is a truly great holiday.
It happens to the best of them, Christmas, Easter, all victims of ruthless commercialization. Mangled and mutilated by the media to the point of gross unrecognition and misrepresentation. It’s not the cheap, overpriced chocolates or the giant teddy bears or the fancy dinners and sappy cards that make Valentine’s Day special; it’s the idea.
Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, romantic, platonic, familial and any other kind. It’s more than that though. It’s an expression of gratitude. It’s a thank you for all of the late night phone calls and bear hugs and small sacrifices that get overlooked or forgotten. It’s especially important since everyone is busy leading their own busy lives and it becomes harder and harder to find time to spend real quality time with loved ones. While it obviously shouldn’t be the only way to show affection, it’s awfully convenient to have a day set aside from the year to count on specifically to show the people who are the most important how much they mean.
I’ve been in love with Valentine’s Day about as long as I’ve been single, so essentially forever. I just find that with so much love in the air it’s hard to be bitter. Even though it’s not a requirement to go all out, the acts of love (big or small) are endearing. Single flowers, treating someone to their favorite restaurant, handmade cards, elaborate scavenger hunts, literally anything except a proposal, makes it impossible to hate Valentine’s Day. It makes people want to go out and do their own acts of love.
The best thing about Valentine’s Day (and a fact that most people forget) is that it’s not necessarily limited to romantic love. People always look so sad to be single on Valentine’s day, especially when there are waves upon waves of couples oozing happiness, seemingly rubbing it in people’s faces. To that I say, grab your bestie and put those couples to shame. Somehow, making breakfast foods and binging rom-coms sounds just as good as spending the day with a girlfriend or boyfriend.Chances are your best friend has seen a handful of exes and tragic oh-no’s when it comes to your love live, and while significant others have waltzed in and out, they’ve always been by your side. Being single on Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to show your best friend that you appreciate them even though sometimes you get wrapped up in other things.
So, at its core, Valentine’s Day is an amazing holiday. And even if you think it’s ridiculous and depressing, just think about all that discount chocolate on February 15.