Valentine’s Day is a fun holiday and all, but it’s really a double-edged sword, to be honest. I’ve had more negative memories around Valentine’s Day than I’ve had positive memories. Is the romance holiday really just the Hallmark postcard sales team duping us normal people on a large scale? Is it a massive conspiracy for the chocolate companies to sell us empty plastic hearts filled with cheap candies?
Probably. The nihilist in me wants to say that all holidays are secretly this — that the only reasons that holidays persist to exist is because we have them shoved down our throats every year. But the realist in me says that it doesn’t really matter whether or not it’s a highly successful social engineering plot pushed by a handful of clever marketing teams.
What matters is, honestly and unironically, what you make of it. If you need Valentine’s Day to mean something to you, then have at it. If Valentine’s Day meaning something to you would only bring you more pain, then don’t get emotionally cuckolded by a chocolate company. Just take advantage of the post-holiday chocolate sales.
Live and let live, my friend. It’s really not that important.