Love, Actually

A little post about love love love in honor of the big day Thursday. Now as a lady who finds herself habitually single I have a couple of options when it comes to celebrating St. Valentine.

As I'm not in elementary school I can forget making up a bunch of My Little Pony valentines and handing them out to all the boys and girls in my class. I can (luckily) forget the high school years where I put on a good show of not caring at all about this stupid holiday created by Hallmark and Russel Stover, but secretly hoping something magical would happen like it did in the movies. As I'm single, I can forget about getting all dressed up and going out to some fabulous restaurant.

I'm single. I'm not dead.

Somewhere in the rocky college years I developed a new appreciation for Valentine's Day. After all it's a holiday. I'm still me. Let's not forget my first true love which is celebrations. So why discriminate? Love doesn't have to be romantic. Valentine's Day is not reduced to couples. Let's bring on the love. Bring on the hearts and flowers and pink!

Back in 2005--the year that changed everything--my sister and I came up with a fantastic idea. We'd celebrate together. We'd do champagne and brunch together. We'd buy each other gifts which is a double bonus because we have just as much fun shopping for each other as we do receiving gifts from each other. The day was going to be perfect. Until.

Until the day that changed my life. Seriously. I didn't realize it then but my whole life was changing. I had let my Crazy take over in an effort to have the magic? To get the guy? (That only happens in the movies anyway--that kind of magic isn't real.) No guy was worth that, especially not this world class a-hole. But I learned something else that night. Even my friends let me down. I crashed and burned and nobody cared enough to help me.

I spend the next day--Valentine's Day--hung over and embarrassed. Not sure of what I had done the night before. I was lost and alone. Two of my closest friends complained about how depressing it was to be alone on Valentine's Day. Depressing? It's funny now, to look back. It was so obviously clear our friendship wouldn't survive that. Couldn't survive that. Depressing? Yeah, I had an idea what that was. It was waking up in your bed not sure how you got there. Not remembering what you did the night before. Knowing you were hurt and angry and could have easily done something, someone simply because you felt empty and alone. Knowing your friend walked away, drove your car away and left you there.

Depressing is hitting rock bottom. Not being single on Valentine's Day.

So that's how it turned around for me. From then on I realized how lucky I was to celebrate those in my life I love. To take a minute and say it, even if it's silly and you say it with flowers or some monkey balloon. I may be single, but there are plenty of people in my life who I love--truly, madly, deeply, love.

There are plenty of reasons to celebrate this Valentine's Day.