According to everyone's favorite source, Wikipedia, a Hallmark holiday is used "to describe a holiday that is perceived to exist primarily for commercial holiday."

Later down in the article, it lists common Hallmark holidays and, not to much surprise, Valentine's Day is on the list. Personally, I couldn't think of a bigger Hallmark holiday because ALL we, as a society, care about on Valentine's Day is what we are going to spend money on for our significant other.

The holiday has become less and less about love and more and more about just having someone, ANYONE, to call your "Valentine." I don't know about everyone else, but I am not about to have some Hallmark holiday, driven almost completely by how much money we spend, make me feel like less than a person because I'm single.

While Hallmark didn't invent Valentine's Day, they sure are taking full advantage of the fact that people have grown used to spending HUNDREDS of dollars on the holiday.

In fact, the average person will spend around $130.97 on the day dedicated to "love." Because obviously spending copious amounts of money on a person proves how much you love them. Hallmark and similar companies are profiting so much on the sale of cards, candy, roses, and teddy bears every year and use mastermind marketing strategies and traditions to make people feel like they have to be spending money.

Although it may seem like I am, I'm honestly not hating on Valentine's Day. It's cute to see all the happy couples together, and if you're truly celebrating the day out of love instead of because you feel obligated to, then that's awesome! The people who love us and are there for us deserve to feel appreciated. However, if you're just celebrating the holiday because you feel like you have to, know you've fallen victim to the Hallmark holiday itself.

I'm not going to let a successful marketing strategy make me feel like shit because I don't have someone to spend money on, aka a Valentine. That's just not worth my time, energy, or tears. Instead, I'll take the roughly $130 I saved by being single on this commercial holiday and spend it on my own damn self because at the end of the day I'm the person who needs a little self-love this February 14th.