Overpriced chocolate, cheesy social media posts, stuffed animals, and sickly sweet cards. What do these four elements make up? Singles awareness day, or as we all know it as, Valentine’s day. The season of overwhelming, excessive romantic gestures and annoying captions that are along the lines of, “love of my life! My other half! [insert a large amount of love related emojis here].” The amount of teddy bears being held and the colorful array of flowers distributed throughout the hallways increase at an alarming rate, before eventually reaching its downfall once again.

Singles everywhere dread Feb. 14th, every corner you turn there are couples holding hands, kissing, making you feel more single than you already are.

There is one word out of many to describe the feeling the single citizens of the world get in their chest: blah.

Why should there only be one day out of the 365 days dedicated to love. It defeats the entire purpose of being in a relationship. There is the pressure to get something for your loved one on that “special” day, but would it not be more meaningful to get them something on a random day, a nice surprise?

Anniversaries are basically Valentine’s day, every couple has their day where they celebrate their love for each other. Which deems the red, white, and pink day as an unneeded extension.

If this day was dedicated to different types of love, maybe it would be better. But, marketing aims towards couples. Buy them red, cliché roses! Buy them overpriced, heart shaped chocolate! Buy them a large teddy bear that will soon be stored away into the closet where it will eventually collect dust!

I hate to deliver the cold, hard truth, but, Valentine’s day is simply a commercial holiday.

Hallmark stores profit off of it immensely. Feeding the idea that necklaces, rings, all sorts of jewelry, will win the heart of that one lucky girl. Every kiss begins with Kay…or in more realistic terms, every kiss begins with materialistic items.

One of the factors of Valentine’s day that truly sends feelings of annoyance, among the many, is social media posts. Whether it be snapchat’s of gifts that were exchanged, instagram posts with long paragraphs that no one truly read but still commented “cute!” under it, or a twitter thread that highlighted all the things the couple love about each other.

The list goes on.

This so called holiday is simply an excuse for two things. One, stores to make money off of people. Two, people to show off their over the top romantic gestures that only happen once a year.

Valentine’s day can be a terribly bitter day for many people, often being consumed by the sensation of being alone. Everywhere you go you are reminded of the fact that yes, it is Valentine’s day and yes, you will most likely end up being upset if you are single.

As a kid it was a fun holiday, exchanging candy with your classmates and making heart shaped cards for your parents, but as you grow older all of the happy sensations you felt during Valentine’s day simply vanishes if you hold the status of “single”.

With the pressure to buy gifts, the lack of happiness, couples everywhere you go, and heart shaped chocolates never failing to be in your line of sight, Valentine’s day is a Hallmark movie dream, but your wallets worst nightmare.