Photo by Kleigh Balugo
As synonymous as love is with Valentine’s Day, loneliness is equally related; it is the dark underbelly that comes with such a sensationalized holiday. For every person in a happy relationship, there is a person feeling the pain of unrequited love; for every flower bought, there is someone who will receive no gifts; and for every “happy valentine’s day to my soul mate” Instagram post, there is a struggle tweet.
Now this isn’t to shame anyone into feeling bad for wanting to share a day of romance with their partner – it would be far too hypocritical of me too. The next February that rolls around that finds me in a relationship, I too will go all out on the 14th; however, this year is not one of those years, so I will write this instead in attempts to make myself feel better about being alone.
Valentine’s Day is simply an arbitrary day in February, that is all. Anyone can look into the religious origins and “deep” history of the holiday, but let’s be honest: in the United States, the purpose of Valentine’s Day is to boost first quarter profits for the goliath greeting card, chocolate, and flower companies (Side note: buy from local businesses if you do participate!). Every year American’s spend billions on V-Day festivities, and while there is nothing wrong with that, showing it’s true purpose might act as consolation to those not participating in such a blatant demonstration of commercialism.
With that being said, I leave you with this: don’t sulk this Valentine’s day if you are alone for you are an anti-capitalist rebel! You are willing to sit-out of the fun festivities on a day of love to combat the commercialist purpose that said day has! Good on you, for intentionally being single *wink wink* in the interest of your morals, and I wish you a very uneventful Sunday evening.
Kindergarten 