Don’t hate on Valentine’s Day

JULIANA CURTIS
OPINION EDITOR
@julianacurtis28

I know Valentine’s Day can be hard when you are single. If we aren’t currently single, we all have been at some point, and know our fair share about what it is like on “Singles Awareness Day” without a significant other.

Having said that, I also know what it is like to be in a relationship on Valentine’s Day. You would think that everything would be great. Having a day to show off your love life without any judgment or ridicule, free to post kissing pictures with sappy captions, shower your significant other with gifts, pack on the PDA. But we are not free from judgment or ridicule. In fact, being in a relationship on Valentine’s Day can be even more embarrassing than being single.

I understand the difficulty of scrolling through your timeline on Valentine’s Day when you are not so optimistic about love, fighting back the eye rolls or even disgusted gags. Although most couples keep it tasteful and romantic, I realize that there are some bolder social media users that can provide some disturbingly intimate photos from time to time.

On behalf of these people, I apologize. But for the most part, all these lovebirds want to do is join in on the celebration, showing their friends that they are happily in love, and showing their partner that they are proud to show it. For the majority of couples, this is the only day of the year that they will be so obvious about doing it. So why not let us just have one day?

I fully support throwing singles parties, or even the clever “Galentine’s Day” parties with single girlfriends. But sometimes this light-hearted rebellion becomes not-so-light-hearted, resulting in angry “I Hate Valentine’s Day” parties, flipping off the candy aisles at grocery stores, or, in the case of 2015, aggressively mocking the “me and bae” Snapchat geotag.

Some bitter people, males especially, even poke fun at their committed friends, commenting hateful remarks on their pictures to make them feel lame about showing off their love. I find this extremely unfair.

If you are single and in college, chances are you are endlessly bragging about how fun single life is. Whether it is posting party pictures, telling the stories of your wild escapades, or even just rubbing it in how amazing the freedom is to do whatever you want, chances are we committed people have heard it all many times. And it is very rare that we fight you on it, as we have probably felt some jealousy at one point towards our unattached friends.

So, given that single people basically get to celebrate themselves all other days of the year, why can’t you just let us other people celebrate our cheesy day in peace? Whoever is single now won’t be forever, and you know you will want to be just as obnoxious when your day to celebrate comes. If you were single and struggling this past Saturday, instead of being bitter, I would have just advised you to ignore social media for a day, or pop in Drake’s new album and let him do the whining for you.