At what point in your lives did Valentine’s Day move from decorating boxes and sharing cards with the class to something only intended to be celebrated among couples? The day dreaded by most singles is actually one of my favorite holidays - and that’s coming from someone who’s been single for all but one. With this Valentine’s Day being for the single girls, let's bring it back to the core of Valentine's Day: love!
This love doesn’t have to be romantic, it can be any form of love - platonic, familial, for a pet, for an object, for an activity, for any noun, really. Most importantly, though, Valentine's Day should be a day to celebrate self love.
The key to having a happy Valentine’s Day without a romantic partner to share it with; keep yourself busy! This looks different for everyone, but I suggest planning a Galentine’s Day party or binge watching rom-coms with good friends. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing as long as it keeps you from the death spiral of scrolling through everyone’s couple-y instagram posts and celebrating the people that you love. If you really want to keep with the beautiful tackiness that Valentine’s Day makes for, do it with an immense amount of heart shaped candy while wearing as much pink clothing as you can put on.
If those aforementioned couple-y instagram posts are going to cause a serious risk of phone-breakage, maybe delete instagram for the day - make your Galentine’s Day function phoneless and capture the night with disposable cameras! If you get major FOMO when you’re off of instagram, holding a Valentine themed photoshoot (I hear Mark Bluemle takes pretty good pictures) and posting content that will make your ex cry should do just the trick. Whoever they are, I know that they got uglier and you got hotter, so never let that feeling waver.
As much as Valentine’s day is about love, it is also about revenge, so instead of crying over a lack of a love life today, spend time with the people who do love you, and crush those exes by being your best self.
Written by Lily Greenberg
Photos by Mark Bluemle
Model: Tyler Goodmore