Every year during mid-February, Ogden City and the Weber State University campus are blanketed in red, pink and purple paper hearts, ribbons, card displays and flowers. For hundreds of years, Valentine’s Day has been celebrated as a day of romance for couples, young and old, all over the world. Young lovers or even good friends and family members use this day to show their caring for other people in their lives.
However, many people resent the celebration of Valentine’s Day because they are too unlucky to gain the love and affection of someone close to them. There is an anti-Valentine’s or Singles Awareness Day springing up in the hearts and minds of WSU students, as well as many others across the country. In the weeks leading up to Feb. 14, social networking sites like Facebook are littered with resentful and self-pitying messages from those who do not have a spouse, partner or date for Valentine’s Day and want to whine about it. Many singles will lock themselves in their homes on Valentine’s Day and eat their weight in chocolates or drink themselves into a stupor. Still others find more productive ways of getting through Valentine’s Day, such as setting up events and activities for singles to gather together, have fun and vent their hatred for St. Valentine together.
We all know plenty of students have, likewise, expressed frustration at the holiday and sickness at being forced to watch young couples enjoy what they do not and might never have. Others simply talk about the times “before they were married” when they observed Singles Awareness Day. However, there are those of us at The Signpost who feel that the loathing for the day of love has gone too far. We feel that people just need to get over their anxiety about Valentine’s Day, because some of us are also single but still enjoy the holiday and everything it represents.
Some of the more flamboyant among us still love Valentine’s Day for all the colors, roses and candy. Others will still celebrate by giving cards and gifts to family members and friends. We all go through times in life when we aren’t able to have a partner or spouse to celebrate Valentine’s Day with. We’re willing to bet there is at least one time in every WSU student’s life when they did not have anyone to celebrate Valentine’s Day with. This is why we feel our fellow Wildcats should focus on the positive and not feel sorry for themselves on Valentine’s Day. It’s also important not to be jealous of other people’s happiness. Instead, we should be happy that other people have someone special in their lives, whether temporarily or permanently. We should realize that, logically, we can’t possibly be alone forever and that, one day, OUR Valentine’s Day will come.
Besides, who says you can’t focus on how much you care about your relatives or your best friend every Feb. 14? Love doesn’t have to be romantic. Sometimes it can be platonic and still be satisfying.
