Happy Valentines Day!

How fitting is it that my first post is on Valentine’s Day, a day where couples all over the world exchange the most loving gifts over candle light dinners, before performing shared grandiose gestures. However, this only exists in an ideal world. 

I’ve seen many online talk about their fears for their relationships in the future. Will they end up like their constantly bickering parents? Or form into one of those sad-sack adult relationships, so bored with the mundane routine, but not making an effort to change anything? Who knows. With the state of relationships in this generation, anything is possible.

I’m sure as the mundane days of adulthood go by with a significant other, Valentine’s Day falls further down the list of priorities, under bills and mortgages, and other boring adult things. I’m no middle-aged expert, but I’m sure one gets sick of the years of grand gestures, big fluffy teddy bears, and boxes of chocolates, opting to instead fall into the average adult Valentines tradition of reciting a depressing “Happy Valentine’s Day” over lukewarm microwaved leftovers with some news channel droning on in the background. 

And to some that is a fulfilling Valentine’s day. Who cares about the roses and chocolates and gestures anyways?

I’m indifferent. Valentine’s day is fun, I love the color scheme, but, like every other holiday, it has turned into a convoluted goldmine for stores to sell you useless shit they paint as the perfect little pink and red trinket for Valentines day, that everyone has the awareness will likely get shoved in the back of your closet for eternity, but is cute for now. It’s a gimmick, but it is fun. Chocolate is great, roses are nice, but is that really what makes Valentine’s day special? No, but it’s definitely a plus. 

Being single on Valentine’s day doesn’t crush my soul, everytime I see a couple celebrating I don’t scoff. To some, Valentine’s day is the ultimate “f you.” They think that every couple posting about their Valentines day activities is aimed at specifically making them feel sad, alone, and single. That is obviously not the truth, but with the amount of talk I hear about their pain and suffering on Valentine’s day, you’d think they were about to meet the same end as Saint Valentine himself. 

According to legend (and what I remember from Catholic school), Saint Valentine was a priest performing secret weddings, which were illegal at the time to encourage men to fight in the war, rather than be concerned with their wife (or wives). Saint Valentine preformed these weddings in secret for years before being caught by Emperor Claudius, who proceeded to torture and behead him on Febuary 14th, 273 AD. This tragic story, naturally, was turned into a holiday about love, but mostly about buying a bunch of useless things to prove you love your partner. 

No matter how you celebrate Valentine’s day, whether that be over candle light or leftovers or, for the unlucky bunch, staring into your phone screen with furrowed brows and a pouting lip, I can guarantee it went a whole lot better than the first Valentine’s day.