Today is February 13th, and I'm willing to bet you know what tomorrow is: Yes, it is Retweet Everything Taylor Swift Says on Twitter Day ^_^ Wait, what? Oh yeah, and it may be "Valentine's Day" or some junk. I hear it is a new holiday western cultures the world over want to make an annual thing; we'll see how it goes.
It is a time to celebrate love and affection couples have for each other, while for many others it could be anything from "Just another day" to "Don't talk to me!" day. I only have a few hours to reach out to the latter, or at least to the few people on Facebook who believe every couple they know is waiting to rub their noses in it tomorrow with rosy status updates they don't care to know. It is human nature for a single person to become self-centered about everything relating to Valentine's Day; this will be my twenty-ninth Valentine's Day without a boss, I MEAN, girlfriend to celebrate the day with, and during those years I invented different ways of celebrating the occasion: Denying the truth about my life, shouting at family, shouting at friends, fear of being alone, fear of dying alone, eating, overeating, lack of eating, sulking, crying, going to the mall and crying, going to the mall and counting the number of couples holding hands, going to the mall to prove what a big spender I was, buying lottery tickets, more eating, buying Under Armour, closing my Facebook account, reopening my Facebook account, and sleeping. Not the biggest to-do list in the world, I know, however each of those responses contained one major flaw: Selfishness!
Twenty-eight times I entered a twenty-four battle with the world to prove it could not get me down. For eight of those years I worked at a paint store, and customers, who happened to be married, chimed in on how much of an idiot I was for not having a "boss lady" and why I should work on Valentine's Day and Family Day because I was "inept" and "not a man". You may know people just like that at your school, office, or marketplace that you want to strangle for suggesting that you are an "old maid" or "lonesome George"; don't do that. Consider, if you will, that somewhere in the world there is a man or woman, who played by the "rules" of Valentine's Day, and will not receive a bouquet of flowers courtesy of TELEFLORA, or a heart shaped box of chocolates from LAURA SECORD: Other single people, family and friends with loved ones serving overseas in the military, single parents wishing they had an extra pair of hands to help raise a family, the divorced, and widows.
TANGENT: Right now, I'm eating roasted soybeans to pass the time (munch munch munch: Mr. Peanut is on the bag). I never thought I would live to see that: Me eating something from Planters!
Hopefully the previous tangent gave you an opportunity to think about people in your life for whom Valentine's Day is the most difficult; by comparison, you don't have a lot to be upset about, or rather still you don't have a right: No one does. I'm sure we are all in agreement there is at least one person out there who loves us no matter what, and would risk it all just to keep you around and on this planet even if just for another day? The next twenty four hours will be tough, but for so many others "just another day" without that special someone life is tougher still. What can you do (I am aware the video is a bit dated, but that's beside the point: Just enjoy, alright)?
There are many things you can do on Valentine's Day: Call that person on the phone, leave a joke on their Facebook profile for them to laugh at, invite a bunch of single people over to your house and place a moratorium on the word "Valentine" and play SCRABBLE or WIZARD or something, or you could put your feelings aside and write something down to encourage someone else going through the same thing.
Tomorrow will be the 29th Valentine's Day I will celebrate, but I'll try not to do "celebrate" alone like in previous years. Thumbs up if you agree normal Phil is better than sulking, angry, overeating Phil? Thanks ^_^
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