Valentine’s Day is overrated.

Another year. Another holiday of being single. All my single folks know what it’s like to spend the holidays with no romantic love interest. While everyone else is posting their loves and how happy they are, single people are left viewing from the sidelines. But while it can suck to be single while everyone else you know is in a relationship, it’s okay to be single and alone. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.

A few years ago, I used to wish that I was in a relationship so I could celebrate Valentine’s Day like all the other happy couples. It was the day of love. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? I always felt a little left out of this holiday after seeing everybody else have someone to celebrate it. But for the past two years, I’ve come to realize why I am not big on celebrating Valentine’s Day in the first place.

I am not Valentine’s Day number one fan. I could do without the holiday, to be quite honest, and I’ll tell you why.

Answer this question: Why do we only celebrate love one day of the year?

Out of 365 days in the year, only one day is for celebrating love. On top of that, this holiday always feels like it shoves its agenda down your throat. The card and chocolate companies are making bank on this day. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Valentine’s Day took over the world thanks to card companies. So, in other words, Valentine’s Day is a Hallmark holiday that makes you feel obligated to spend money on romantic things you probably wouldn’t do otherwise.

That’s the main reason why I have an issue with this holiday. It makes love feel like an obligation. It feels forced and ingenuine. If you are in a relationship and only do sweet things for your partner on Valentine’s Day and no other day, you are part of the problem. The entire concept of this holiday forces us to do a nice thing because everybody else is doing it too. It’s a catalyst for romance, and that’s not necessarily a positive.

The connotations attached to Valentine’s Day make me feel indifferent. Why does there even have to be a holiday to celebrate love? We should celebrate love every day, not only one day of the year. And why do we only have to celebrate romantic love? Love is a broad word. It’s a general feeling we all experience and feel. For Valentine’s Day, we should not only be celebrating romance. We should also be celebrating platonic love, friend love, and self-love. We can celebrate more than one type of love for this holiday.

And this is coming from someone who loves romance! I used to eat Romance novels up (I honestly still do), and I am a sucker for the cliches. So I guess it’s an oxymoron that I am neutral to the world’s most romantic day of the year.

Do you want to know how I spent this year’s Valentine’s Day? I went to the DMV and then the car wash. That’s it. I didn’t even say Happy Valentine’s Day to anyone because it was just an ordinary day for me. All February fourteenth is is another day. Nobody should feel obligated to celebrate this holiday.

Love is not an obligation. Love is not a requirement. Love is not materialistic.

That’s what this holiday always gets wrong. It’s marketed as a single day to buy fancy romantic gifts for your partner. Never does it say to keep celebrating love even after the holiday ends. It’s all sunshine and red roses for 24 hours, and then it’s back to normal, where love is becoming a hard thing to find amongst people.

Don’t only celebrate love when a holiday tells you to. Celebrate love every day and show love to your partner every day. Show love to yourself every day!

Remember that love is not only reserved for one day of the year. Love is around us all the time. That’s the true beauty of love worth celebrating.

Written in February 2022