Valentine’s Day is marketed as this big celebration of love, but in reality, it feels more like that pop quiz everyone forgot about… and somehow it was worth half your grade. Every February, people are expected to prove their affection with flowers, chocolates, and those dinner reservations you either made three weeks in advance or forgot about…
Performing Couples
Has anyone else noticed Valentine’s Day turns relationships into a public presentation? Apparently, I didn’t get the memo that we can’t just celebrate our love for others; we have to post on social media as proof to strangers that we’re doing okay. Because if it’s not on Instagram, was it even real? So romantic, isn’t it? I can already see it, can you? Matching outfits and captions that last longer than the relationship itself. We can’t put all the blame on couples for ruining no ones favorite holiday, though, because if you listen real close, you can actually hear the distant sobs from all the single people in their childhood bedrooms.
Single People Pretending It’s “Just Another Day”
When single people flip their calendar to February, they also stock up on the ice cream and get extremely passionate over all the discounted chocolate on the 15th. Saying “I don’t care” or “it’s a made-up holiday anyway” as they defrost the Ben and Jerry’s like it’s a sacred Valentine’s Day ritual. Honestly, the clear issue isn’t being single; it’s the constant reminder and being bombarded with all the “happy couples” on Instagram.
Now, we discussed the “sad singles”, now it’s time to take a moment to acknowledge and applaud the brave souls who I call the emotionally independent (a self-appointed title by the way). You know, the girls who throw “galentines” parties. They single-handedly motivate the “sad singles” to get up from their couches and maybe put away the ice cream, but that’s a stretch. The emotionally independent set their feeling aside for the day, well, until they have to clean all the glitter off the floor, of course. Or the happy tears when Target still had some pink sugar cookies in stock after they “accidentally” forgot theirs in the oven. They weren’t gonna be edible anyway; it’s probably for the best.
Everyone Else Paying For The Illusion
The real winners of Valentine’s Day are stores, businesses, and brands. Every last minute Walgreens run because you forgot to buy your girlfriend flowers, makes the cashiers smile brighten because nothing fuels retail joy like romantic panic, and he knows even though the flowers were overpriced you were gonna buy them no matter what the cost was sleeping on the couch and a mad girlfriend that even chocolate can’t help. If it’s not the flowers, it’s everything heart-shaped, or the god awful cards that got picked up and signed in the car last minute. Don’t even get me started on restaurants and their overpriced menus. Am I supposed to believe that your twenty-dollar bowl of pasta is any more romantic than that Big Mac I was eyeing earlier? But it’s Valentine’s Day, so it’s okay to turn normal things into “romantic” versions with a higher price tag.
Valentine’s Day isn’t bad because love is bad. It’s bad because love isn’t made to feel pressured, a performance, or be in the form of an empty wallet. Maybe the most romantic thing we could do is stop asking who Valentine’s Day is for and let people celebrate love however they want, or not at all, especially if that celebration involves sweatpants and discounted chocolates.
