Some call Valentine’s Day “Singles Awareness Day.” This is especially true in my case because in the past week leading up to V-Day, I have never been more aware of my single status. It’s not really something you consciously think about, until someone comes up to you and says, “My boyfriend/girlfriend is buying me flowers/buying me something useless/buying me a generic Hallmark card and then taking me to insert-expensive-restaurant-name-here for Valentine’s Day, what are you doing?” What a loaded question.
This is the first V-Day in quite some time that I am single. The funny thing is, I am so anti-Valentine’s Day, I never really celebrated it when I had boyfriends. In fact, I outright hated it. I never understood why couples would need a specific day to show each other how much they meant to each other. Shouldn’t that be every day? So, except for maybe a homemade card or dinner, my past Valentine’s Days went by relatively unnoticed and event-free.
To compound my contempt for V-Day, I never understood how a day set aside to honor St. Valentine, a holy guy from the third century that was brutally executed for his religious beliefs, became a day to prove your love to someone by buying them things. I did some research, and some believe this is because before St. V marched off to his execution, he left a note for the jailer’s daughter, a “friend” of his, signed “From Your Valentine.” Likely story. That sounds more like a Disney movie. Actually, February 14 had always been a day set aside for Roman “love lotteries,” where boys would pick girls’ names out of a jar and they’d have to dance together at a festival. Somehow V’s bloody execution and this antiquated courtship ritual joined forces and became what we now know as Valentine’s Day, or the one and only “Hallmark Holiday” (Kasey would know, she used to work there).
So while I don’t have a significant other to celebrate the carnage of Valentine’s vicious execution this year, I have more than enough reason to commemorate his end. There are a lot of really great people in my life, and I intend on using V-Day to let them know that. Instead of spending your cash on a singing Valentine’s Day card (Dr. Brooks, I’m talking about you), just let everyone in your life know that they’re “tops,” or “cool,” or “awesome” (OK, so I stole all those adjectives from the box of conversation hearts I’m currently eating). Unless, of course, you want to do something extra special for your special someone – then the musical greeting card is more than allowable. But first make sure you tell everyone in your life that they are “so fine” (who writes these things anyway?)
And to all my fellow singletons, let’s find solidarity in our singleness. Senunas’ is offering a Break Up Ball, where you can drink, dance and hopefully meet someone just as single as you. If you’re under 21, get together with your friends and rent some movies (as long as they’re not romantic comedies!) On this Valentine’s Day, don’t let the man (that small, winged naked man equipped with archaic weaponry) keep you down.
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