I'll say it: Valentine's Day sucks. Sure, it's a day to celebrate love and romance between couples, which is great and all. But, it's morphed into a day of resentment for everyone else. It's a day that heightens loneliness and desperation in single people who loathe those in realtionships or force themselves into a hasty relationship with someone they don't like so that they aren't alone on Valentine's Day.
Wow! That was a very cynical explanation and I know that not everyone feels that way. But, enough people do that we should turn the focus from resentment of being single and lonely to an appreciation for yourself and what you have.
So, since we don't have a nationally recognized "Treat Yo Self" Holiday, which is "a tragedy on par with human trafficking" (Leslie Knope said it, not me), then Valentine's Day is as good a day as any to show yourself some love.
Forget that you're lonely. Forget that you're single. Forget that the only person you've talked to on Tinder in the past 2 weeks is a blurry-image bot who still thinks it's summer vacation. Forget all that. You're not doing yourself any good if you are focusing on what you don't have instead of what you do.
Spend the day at the spa. Or spend the night playing old video games. Or spend the day eating a whole tube of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Spend the night with your friends. If you don't have any friends, spend the night with your imaginary friends. If you don't have any imaginary friends, watch "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends."
All joking aside, this is really important. It's not about loving yourself first so that you can learn how to love someone else. It's about taking away the polarizing feelings on Valentine's Day: either happy to be in a relationship or resentment at every other relationship in the world. it's okay to be single and lonely on valentine's Day. In fact, it's okay to be single and lonely on any day of the year. It may not seem like it, but once you start appreciating where you are, then everything else will be okay.
So, I challenge you to do something that will make you happy on Valentine's Day. It's on a Tuesday this year, so your options are limited. Though, you probably have class or work the next day, so drinking yourself into happiness is probably not the best way of accomplishing that. Even if it's something small like an extra cookie for snack or a star sticker that says, "You're great!"
Treat Yo Self 2017!