I love Valentine’s Day, and as a girl who has never had a Valentine, I’ve never understood all the hate around the holiday, even if you’re spending it without a significant other. My mom always made it special for me as a child, and my fondness for it has never faded.
For me, it’s never been about romance, just the love I have for so many people in my life, which is not necessarily a romantic partner. It definitely helps that my closet is also saturated with pink and red, two of my favorite colors.
My whole life, I would wake up on Feb. 14 to a stuffed animal and an assortment of festive candies from my mom, making it a special day regardless of who I was or wasn’t dating. To me, Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love for anyone in my life, especially friends and family.
In many Latin-American countries, Valentine’s Day is celebrated as “Dia de Amor y Amistad,” directly translating to “Day of Love and Friendship.” I wish this spirit were more common in the United States — less focused on relationships and more on love in general — because that’s a sentiment everyone can agree on.
In recent years, Valentine’s Day has also been celebrated by women under the term “Galentine’s Day” to express a day of love between female friends. This makes the holiday more appealing to many women, as a day for their friends and not one focused on relationships.
The point here is that the holiday isn’t all about love in a relationship. It sounds cheesy, but it's true to say that love is everywhere. The day is meant to celebrate platonic love and destigmatize the idea that Valentine’s Day is only for people who have partners.
Other criticisms of the holiday include the impact and overload of consumerism surrounding the holiday. The second those Christmas items leave the shelves, they’re replaced by an onslaught of pink, red and hearts all over. While cute, the stuffed animals and cheesy phrases can understandably be annoying to some.
All of these qualms combine to create quite a stir of negativity around February each year, with friends often criticizing my love for the holiday as they wallow in single sadness. I’ve even been bashed for wanting to celebrate, with friends questioning how I could even be happy on such a day. The negativity from most people our age at times makes me self-conscious to be such a fervent supporter.
“I feel like there's no need to be that negative,” said senior Spanish major Nathan Bjurstrom. “That's a little bit aggressive of an opinion about it.”
Even without a Valentine, I feel everyone should be able to find a positive in a day so highly centered around love. Being single doesn’t mean you still can’t have that feeling for others in your life, so why hate on the people happily celebrating their loved ones.
“I think it's definitely understandable if it's a sore subject,” said sophomore strategic communication major McKenna Cook. “I think overall, it usually has a good message to it.”
The message is that love is inevitable in life, and Feb. 14th is just one day out of 365 that we should be celebrating it. Love — between friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses and anyone else who makes your life better — deserves to be honored in whatever way is meaningful to you.
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So you can be like me, wearing pink and red and buying every Valentine’s-themed Squishmallow I set my eyes on, or you can celebrate in less flashy fashions, but don’t be a Valentine’s Day hater. It’s about more than just your relationship status. Tell your people you love them.
Elisa Rosenthal is a senior Spanish education major with a passion for writing and storytelling. She’s originally from Georgia and writes sports for The Student, honoring a long family love for college sports.
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