by EMILIE ALDEN and VICTORIA GEORGE
Valentine’s Day is a meaningful day to celebrate romantic love with your special someone.
It’s a day filled with chocolate strawberries, candy, candle-lit dinner dates and many more activities. People who have someone to celebrate with can enjoy this glittering day and live happily.
But what about those who don’t have anyone to spend V-Day with? This is a guide on how to happily spend Valentine’s Day without a valentine.
The most important thing you can do is to refrain from comparing yourself to your peers.
This can be hard, especially on a day that primarily celebrates the love that you currently lack. Instead, try focusing on yourself and doing things that make you happy. You could stay in and take a self-care night!
Anything you can do to get your mind off of other people and onto your own well-being will be beneficial for you.
One thing you should not do on Valentine’s Day is stalk your ex’s socials.
This might be one of the hardest steps of them all, but if you look at what they’re doing on this love-filled day, you might just send yourself into an emotional spiral.
This can be a challenging step, and if you find yourself unable to keep your eyes away, you should mute your ex’s story and posts, turn
off their snap map, and even block their account. To keep them out of mind, you need to make sure they stay out of sight. Instead of sulking over your ex, go hang out with your friends and have a Galentine’s Day! This is a great solution to stop thinking about your past love, and have fun with people who don’t leave you heartbroken.
Reassure yourself that this day is technically ordinary. Candy and and card companies have commercialized Valentine’s Day and labeled it the time to show your love and appreciation for your significant other. In reality, we shouldn’t need a specific day to recognize the meaningful people in our lives; we should practice doing that every day.
You don’t need to buy candy or cards to reassure someone that you that you value them. Do this daily with your words and actions.
Frequently, romantic love feels like the most desirable form of relationship in our lives. You’ll likely hear a love song if you turn on the radio.
Romantic relationships can flood our minds and take over our lives. If you don’t have someone special to spend this Valentine’s Day with, we suggest you focus on other types of love in your life. This could include calling a grandparent, taking your mom to dinner, spending the day with single friends or watching a movie with your dog.
Remember that there are all types of meaningful love and relationships around us that we often take for granted.
If you love the planet and aren’t such a big fan of the feast of Saint Valentine, you are in luck! For all the lonely (and sustainable) people out there, don’t bother contributing to Valentine’s Day. It’s all a wasteful love fest of consumerism anyway! Although Valentine’s is supposed to be a day of love and happiness, February 14th releases nine million kilograms of carbon dioxide into the environment, plus tons of single-use items such as heart-shaped balloons, plastic-wrapped candy, stuffed animals and other useless items that take 100 to 500 years to decompose.
Instead of sulking in your bed all day, at least remember that you are saving the planet!
All in all, surviving Valentine’s Day single is an achieveable feat. So put on a cheesy rom-com and celebrate your independence; you deserve to enjoy Valentine’s Day … with or without a significant other.
The Mainsheet 