I absolutely love Valentine's Day. It is by far my favorite holiday, and yes, I am including Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Flag Day. Although I have never ended up having a girlfriend on Valentine's Day (the closest I ever got was me breaking up with a girl on February 2), I still defend it vehemently.
Love is the greatest testament of man's inherent goodness. Joy is a grand feeling, and even anger can satisfy some need, but there is no emotion as all-encompassing as love. Love is what pushes the soldier over the hill, it's what drives the mother to sacrifice so her child may prosper, it is what compels men to show compassion and mercy to their fellow humans, and it is so important that every single major religion agrees that the best way to create children is a bond sealed in love.
Yet how is this holiday treated? Who stands guard at the gates of man's greatest treasure? Jaded and sarcastic heathens who instead celebrate Singles Awareness Day while making Han Solo jokes and whining about it being a "Hallmark holiday."
If you listen carefully, you can hear them now in the distance: "There's nobody out there who likes me, and I don't like anyone! I'm a whiny child! Hate me! Hate me!"
Ignoring the fact that, based on pure statistics, there is someone out there who likes you, and you probably do like someone so you have no excuse to not celebrate the holiday. Love has to be found—it's an intrinsic part of its DNA, and if you're not going to look for love even on the one day out of the year when you're encouraged to celebrate it, then you will not find love. End of story.
Now please don't misinterpret me: I'm not saying you have to go make a grand profession of your love with doves and roses, but there is no shame or embarrassment in going up to your crush and saying, "Hey _____, just wanted to wish you a happy Valentine's Day." If you don't want to do that, then tell one of your friends, family, or someone else important to you.
People most often try to claim that love hurts. It hurts to see your crush fall for another person, it hurts to see your significant other cheat on you, and it hurts to get dumped. But none of that is love. Love is incapable of hurting. Rejection hurts, jealousy hurts, and loss hurts. Love is the only thing in the world incapable of inflicting pain—in fact, love is the only thing that can ever fully cover up such pain.
I know that most people celebrate Singles Awareness Day as a sort of jaded cynicism, and perhaps I'm just a hopeless romantic, but they need to knock it off. Valentine's Day is a celebration of love, and it is proper we celebrate man's few truly good attributes.
