[media-credit name=”Amanda Lewark” align=”alignright” width=”200″]
[/media-credit]By choice or because of failure to secure a date, some will be spending Valentine’s Day alone. For singles, there is an alternative holiday. It is called Singles Awareness Day.
“Sometimes people mistake loneliness for being alone, and I think that being alone can be very healthy for people. I think being alone can be peaceful, being alone can bring solitude,” said Dianna Abel, the director of Counseling and Psychological Services Center. “Or we can put all kinds of negative interpretations on it and make it seem like there is something wrong with us for being alone.”
SAD is an unofficial holiday that is observed by the unaccompanied on Valentine’s Day or on the day before or after. There is even an alternative name for the day. Some call it Singles Appreciation Day.
“I think that they shouldn’t be missing out on anything,” said WSU student Halee Nelson about people spending Valentine’s Day alone, “because I think that Valentine’s Day, whether you have a valentine or not, is about telling people that you love in your life that you love them.”
For the Internet community, there is a trend of embracing one’s loneliness and making fun of it. The popular rage comic Forever Alone depicts a character saddened by various situations but is often set up comically.
Overseas, there are similar web celebrations of being alone. Korea and China have large internet parties such as The Solo Regiment and Loneliness Party that have generated attention across the web.
WSU student Dustin Bashaw said that a drawback to having a valentine is the obligation to going out and having to do something with that person.
“For a lot of people, having someone in your life that you feel comfortable talking to helps alleviate depression because you feel like the load doesn’t have to be all yours,” Abel said. “It’s just that a lot of times, we don’t think about a good friend, a parent, a sibling, an aunt, whoever it is that you feel close to in your family as being that person.”
Students might be feeling lonely, but they are not alone.
