Just imagine, you’re walking to your locker in the morning — just as you do everyday — when you find yourself running into a couple exchanging gifts all the while leaning against your locker. You excuse yourself while thinking about how strange it is for people to be giving Christmas gifts two months later, but you move onto your first period class: Spanish.
Your first thought when you see the construction paper and scissors out is that the teacher is going to assign some sort of tedious assignment. Sure enough, the teacher announces that you will be writing a poem in Spanish to someone you care about. Easy enough, you always try to write something semi-special to one of your good friends every time this assignment is given on Valentine’s Day.
Oh right, you think, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. The annual school traditions for the oh-so-special day you’d rather not give a second thought about will commence.
You carry on for the rest of the day, avoiding your taken friends because they will be with their boyfriends or girlfriends more often than usual and won’t be as accepting into letting you third-wheel. You don’t mind, you would feel awkward in that situation anyways. But despite the friendly reminder of the holiday first period, second period goes okay and you’re feeling confident again until third period.
The teacher hands out endless amounts of roses to girls and guys eager to show the world that they, in fact, are not single. Meanwhile you sit there shrinking lower and lower into your seat looking forward to dedicating the next day to watching Netflix and eating pizza and ice cream.
But I’m here to tell you that just because you’re single doesn’t mean you are expected to be miserable and feel bad for yourself every Feb. 14 until you find a partner. Yeah, it feels like you’re so alone and ALL of your friends are in a relationship, but that is highly unlikely. The best way to enjoy the day is to spend it with all your single friends because chances are, they’re just as uncomfortable as you are.
Just because other people may make the day a bigger deal than it actually is doesn’t mean that you have to. Playing it cool and acting like it’s any other Saturday night will definitely help your self-esteem. That and stay off social media to avoid the mushy posts and pictures people in relationships will inevitably put out in the open.
I will admit that on Friday, Feb. 13, when the school is celebrating the holiday, will not be particularly enjoyable if you are single, not just because it’s Friday the 13th, but also because you’ll have no way to avoid seeing people that you know will flaunt their relationship.
It’s okay to feel bad about yourself for a short period of time but you’ll need to pick yourself up in the end if you want to make it out alive. Throwing a pity party all day isn’t very effective and you’ll end up feeling worse than you felt initially. Besides, you’ll find that special person someday.
