Valentine's day is around the corner, or (as it's known to us singletons) Friday. It is a day all about love, which is something that I feel I know a lot about, at least the parts that hurt. Like the rejection, the missed communications, the idiotic lusting after one person when really you should be lusting after this person over here, etc. In the game of love, I am the Cleveland Browns (or really any team from Cleveland since at least 1948, when the Indians last won the World Series. I've been watching ESPN networks to avoid the snow-gasm that is occupying local media all day, so I'm afraid a lot of my metaphors will be sports-related).
But I wear this as a badge of honor, because for every heart broken or every girl left behind in memory, I've always come away with that vital quantity that can't be gained any other way: experience. Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, indeed. Though of course in times when you're broken-hearted or you've broken someone else's heart, it sure as hell doesn't seem that way.
I guess it would be fair to say that Valentine's Day is not my favorite holiday (actually, I despise Halloween just a little more, but that's because I don't like being scared). It's at the very least one that I've always felt ambiguous about, wanting to buy into the cultural myth that it is a "day of love" while noticing that usually I've only got myself to celebrate it with (no masturbation allusions meant, though I'm sure they could be implied). Truth is, love is a game at which I have never been particularly good at. I'm riding the bench this year, no great love to speak of firing all my cylinders as the epic love-fest approaches. There is someone I like, but I won't lie: I got hurt last year bad, mostly my own damn fault, and I've been reluctant since to really put myself out there, to go for something that could be great because I'm afraid of making the same damn mistakes all over again (or some brand-new ones I don't even have a name for).
Perhaps it's the fact that it's a snow day and I don't have much else to occupy my mind (thus the trek for free access to Wi-Fi internet at my mom's place, just a short but suddenly treacherous walk up the street from my grandparents' abode), but I figured it wouldn't hurt to share with my fellow singletons the idea that this Valentine's Day, with no interest in giving off the wrong impression (because that can happen), just take a minute to wish each other a happy Valentine's Day, alleviate some of the stigma that comes from the "relationship status: single" culture we live in. Yeah, this year we might not have a special someone (or someones, if you're a player), but that doesn't mean we have to be mopey about it. Okay, maybe a little mopey, but try not to let that define our day. For me, Friday is also great because at my place of work, it's pay-day (though I'm guessing this week's check won't be so great, what with time missed due to the storm of the century). Being single isn't an illness, it's just a fact that comes when you're just too damn much for some people (keep telling yourself that, or whatever helps you sleep at night). Someday you may get lucky and meet the love of your life, but for now, just try to be good at being you. Don't worry about the fact that you're alone on Valentine's Day; you get to save the money you would've spent on your perhaps-significant other.
Anyway, let me go ahead and wish my fellow single people out there a happy Valentine's Day, or Friday if you prefer. Love makes the world go around, but sometimes it makes your head spin. Still, it beats the opposite of love every time.
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