My Problem with February 14th

There is really no good reason for Valentine's Day. To some, you may feel like "we know this already", therefore there really is no need for an explanation of this bizarre holiday. Others would straight up disagree. "Valentine's Day is a day full of love and admiration in all forms." Shut up with that garbage. Valentine's Day was truly created for one simple purpose, the American purpose if you will, to make everything awkward and expensive.

As a 9 year-old, I really did love Valentine's Day. For elementary school children, Valentine's is just some stupid excuse to get candy and think about your crush opening up one of your 15 homemade valentines that you clumsily wrote their name on. We decorated old shoe and cereal boxes to hold our valentines and sent one another candy grams distributed by the school. I would get this fluttery feeling in my stomach the morning of, for absolutely no reason. With hopes of me one day falling in love like they do in the movies, I had no worries about the back-handed compliment that is Valentine's Day.

Here's the deal: Valentine's day sucks for everyone; the single, the newly dating, and the long-time married.

For single people, it really is just another reminder that mainstream media wants you to feel just as alone as you think you are, shoving heart-shaped boxes of chocolate in your face any chance it can. Turn on any TV show and tell me that you don't "want what they have". Commercial America has instituted the self hatred that we are supposed to feel every time we hear the word "rose petals".

For the newly dating, what on earth are you supposed to get each other? Candy? If you're a teenager, what type of "meaningful gift" are you going to get the person that you not only met 6 weeks ago, but really don't care that much to get to know? The pressure built up around this holiday is continuously confusing as all of your friends pose the question: "what did he get you? A stuffed animal?" There's no instruction manual for teen dating anyway, but adding Valentine's Day to the mix makes for some awkward, anxiety inducing, hormonal garbage.

For long-time married couples, Valentine's Day is just a poke on the back, turning you around to reveal what you already knew: this treatment is a one-day-a-year thing. The day is a reminder that not everyday is romantic and that getting flowers is "only supposed" to happen 1/365 days. Shouldn't a successful marriage be full of date nights and quick trips to the grocery store to buy flowers for a forgotten holiday? You tell me.

So tell me again what you said about Valentine's Day. "A day full of love and admiration in all forms". Life isn't an Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Gardner, and Taylor Lautner movie. And neither is the 14th of February. So this year, don't waste your time. Keep doing your own thing and don't give into the pressures that the 14th has created for all of us; the desperately alone and madly in love. This year, fall in love with yourself and not some corporate American holiday.