On Being My Own Valentine

Valentine’s Day is a day widely associated with romantic love. It’s known as a day for couples, and spending the day alone is something usually pitied and looked down on. But as a person not in a relationship, I would like to highlight that Valentine’s Day is a day for love of all types, whether familial, platonic, romantic, or self love. This year, I really enjoyed making Valentine’s Day a day about loving myself.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t love myself every other day of the year, because I do, I just treat Valentine’s as a day where I treat myself. This year, I bought myself a dozen roses because they’re my favorite flower. I took myself to get my nails done because I’ve wanted to get my nails done with a full set for years now and I’ve never done it before, so why not do it if I’m treating myself? I bought strawberries, and chocolate, and ice cream because those are all things I love. And yeah, I can do this any day of the year, I don’t have to reserve it just for February 14th, but it feels ten times more special when I plan to do all these things specifically because I’m practicing loving myself.

For me, Valentine’s has historically been a day that I never cared much for. Nothing special was done for it and the one time I was in a relationship on Valentine’s, I moved a time zone away two days before it. But right before Valentine’s Day last year, I thought it would be amazing for me to make it a day for practicing self love because romantic love is not the only type of love.

Let me say that again.

ROMANTIC LOVE IS NOT THE ONLY TYPE OF LOVE.

Every other type of love matters. They’re what our relationships thrive on. But as a single person who has struggled with loving herself without many friends, I am biased in saying that self love is the most important type of love because we will always have ourselves. So, it is vital that we show ourselves that we love ourselves and that we appreciated ourselves for everything that we do.

And even though this will be released after Valentine’s, you can save the sentiment for next year or treat yourself to a late Valentine’s for this year. Valentine’s is for all types of love, so practice self love.