Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love. For a lot of people, that means going out and buying sweet gifts for a significant other.
For those without a special someone, however, Valentine’s Day can take on a whole new meaning. It becomes what many have dubbed “Singles Awareness Day,” the one day of the year when singleness leaves the calendar free and people choose to fill it up by either mourning or celebrating their state of romantic solitude.
We asked single students around campus how they celebrate Valentine’s Day. Here are their responses:
• Buy candy and give it away to random people.
• Go out with another single person.
• “Watch sappy movies and hate my life.”
• “Order a pizza for myself and eat the whole thing!”
• Just go to work.
• “Watch movies with my friends.”
• Give out free hugs!
• Avoid Tinder.
• Have sex with someone.
• Buy those big teddy bears when they go on clearance and burn them.
• “Pamper myself – go shopping, get a manicure, etc.”
• Download a playlist of anti-love anthems.
• Drink.
• “Go out with my friends! #BroDate.”
• “Spend time with my family.”
• Go to a horse show.
• Go out with single friends and watch a movie about being single.
• “Celebrate my mom’s birthday with her.”
• Get with your girlfriends, get some good food, a movie and some drinks!
• Go to an animal shelter and love on animals all day.
So whether you’re spending the day with a significant other or spending it alone, just remember that Valentine’s Day is a day to share the love with someone, even if that someone is yourself.
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To contact Lifestyles editor John Connor Coulston, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com
I think people put unnecessary pressure on themselves on Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day to me, is a day to celebrate our loved ones and friends. It could be my boyfriend, my parents, siblings, friends, or whoever I choose to celebrate that day. I do not like to look at valentine as a day to remember that I am single, or that my friends are in a relationship and I am not. . Sometimes, I do not have a date for valentine, so I just spend the day with my friends or family members who are also single. I always buy gifts for my siblings whether or not I am in a relationship on valentine. I think it is a tradition that my family appreciates. Sometimes, I have to work on Valentine’s Day which I do not mind doing because I make a reasonable amount of money on that day. When you work in a restaurant, Val’s day is one of the days that you want to work because a lot of people go out to eat. I think females need to take the pressure off themselves because if someone cares about you, they do not need to wait for one day in a year to show you they care.
Valentines Day is just another day to many single people. I know a lot of people try not to think twice about the fact that they are single when they see February 14th pop up on their calendar. I’ve personally never given the holiday much thought up until now because ironically when that day rolls around each year, I usually don’t have someone special I would like to celebrate it with even if I was into it. I usually treat it like a regular day and go about it as such, but the more I think about it, the more depressed I become, because Valentines Day is the day of love. It is a day that people celebrate the love between them and their significant other. Boys go out and buy gifts and chocolate to make their girlfriends happy because they care about them. If one dwells on it too much they would eventually be swallowed by the reality that they have nobody to share a day of love with. No matter how much someone brushes off that idea on February 14th, the truth is that everyone wants to be loved by somebody and Valentines Day often serves as a reminder to the single that they have no one to share that special day with even if they wanted to.