Emma Bodnar '25
Valentine’s Day - the best or worst time of the year. Couples celebrate their relationships with dates, chocolate, and roses, and everyone else sits aside and curses the greeting card industry.
That’s the stigma, anyway. The media portrays Valentine’s day as heaven if you’re a romantic and hell if you’ve got nobody special to celebrate. The category of “special”, however, doesn’t just fall under the category of romantic.
Celebrating Valentine’s Day isn’t confined to just romantic relationships, especially not in modern society. Getting together with friends or even with your parents is a fun way to celebrate your appreciation with your loved ones.
Valentine’s Day isn’t overrated or too commercialized because of one’s perception of it - by taking the aspect of “love” and focusing on the non-romantic aspect of it, Valentine’s Day becomes one of the best holidays to celebrate.
Throwing Galentine’s parties, holding slideshow nights, and going out to the movies or a place to eat are great ways to celebrate the holiday with friends. Even by just staying in, baking, and watching movies with a close group of friends is the perfect way to show your appreciation for your friends. It’s not about romance entirely, but about love - and humans are more than capable of expressing love that isn’t romantic.
The holiday is about showing those you love how much you care about them and appreciate their presence in your life. Even if you don’t love love, you still have at least one person in your life you’d like to make a gesture to to show that you care.
Sure, Valentine’s Day has become progressively commercialized as technology has advanced and media has grown bigger, but it’s also widened the ways of celebrating and people to celebrate it with. Even if you don’t have a significant other to buy a dozen roses or a box of chocolate for, showing adoration for others that are important to you is, dare I say, even more impactful.