- Only Post Taylor Swift Lyrics on Social Media
- The reason that you should do this is simple. Taylor Swift has written a ridiculous amount of songs about break-ups, love, and being single. While I have no qualms with T-Swizzle (in fact, I love her music, I think she’s a national treasure, and she’s my homegirl), we can all agree that there would be nothing more hilarious than spending the entire day using tweets, Facebook statuses, or Instagram captions with her lyrics, ending them with tagging her in it, and “#Relatable”.
- Wear Sweatpants All Day (Better Yet, No Pants)
- We all hate wearing pants. And on Valentine’s Day you’re single. Celebrate your singleness by wearing sweatpants all day. While your non-single friends will have to dress up, put on dress pants, and go on a date, we singles don’t need to put on such leg prisons—thus, wear SWEATPANTS. Better yet, if you work from home, (also, Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday this year [2016], so you could do this anyway), stay home and wear no pants all day (after you get home from church). If you did have a significant other, remember that you would have to put real pants on, and pants are the worst.
- Get a Heart-Shaped Pizza for Yourself
- Some couples may stay in on Valentine’s Day, and do something “romantic”, like ordering a heart-shaped pizza together. (If you do this, I think you’re doing Valentine’s Day wrong, but that’s another subject for another blog.) We all know that pizza is great (if you don’t think pizza is great, I’m so sorry that you haven’t let carbs, cheese, and tomato sauce resonate in your soul). Since pizza is great, let me tell you something else that’s great—YOU. That’s right! You’re great! So that only means that you need to put together two things that are great together—you and pizza. While any couple would have to share the pizza, you can eat the whole thing. Because we all know that ANY pizza can become a personal pizza with enough willpower.
- Listen to “i” by Kendrick Lamar
- If you’re having a hard time staying joyful on Valentine’s Day and maybe just shed a few tears on your personal heart-shaped pizza while you ate it, it’s time to get a great song going. That song should obviously be “i” by Kendrick Lamar. This song deals a great deal with depression, self-doubt, the world getting you down, and loving yourself. (I would recommend highly the radio-single version, not the album version to clearly get the point across to this song, and that you can better dance your tears away to the radio-single.)
- Don’t Complain, But Know It’s Ok to Want a Special Someone
- One think I think most people can agree on, it’s that complaining gets no one ANYWHERE, and comes off as desperate and annoying when it comes to the matter of singleness. In fact, being single is a great time to grow as a person, get to really know yourself, and should be becoming a better person that is extraordinarily dateable. As a Christian, Paul tells us that it is better for us to be single, but does allow us to be married if we “burn with passion.” If you are a Christian, take Valentine’s Day and read Scripture, pray, and be reminded of what should be your first love—God. Isn’t God enough for you? What in a relationship is it that you yearn for? Relationships are not a bad thing at all, but it becomes an issue if we begin to idolize having a significant other above our love for God. (Also, Jesus is not your boyfriend. Sorry if you buy into the horrible theology of Jamie Grace. Jesus is God, your Savior, and is not supposed to be someone you can have a human romantic relationship with. So STOP IT.) It’s ok to want a special someone. We were made for community as humans, and we need other people. If I said I didn’t want a girlfriend, I would be totally lying, but that doesn’t mean that I let this control my life. There is a healthy tension between wanting a special someone, while not saying how much your life "sucks", because it really doesn't.
- Realize that Valentine’s Day Doesn’t Really Matter
- So you’re single on Valentine’s Day. You’re also single any other day of the year (unless your significant other dumped you the day before Valentine’s Day, and if so I’m really sorry if I was there I’d give you a hug). So why are you getting bummed out about this one day? There’s a lot of freedom to being single! Want to have a guys’ (or girls’) night? You can. Want to take a trip to somewhere? Do it. There is a lot less you have to ask about when being single, and can focus more on your faith (if you’re a Christian). Historically, Valentine’s Day began as a celebration of St. Valentine, a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When the emperor had decided that single men were better soldiers, outlawing marriage for young men. Valentine saw this as wrong, and told Claudius to stuff it like a calzone, performing marriages for lovers in secret. Valentine’s secret marriage services were eventually discovered, and Claudius put Valentine to death. The church began this celebration to “Christianize” the pagan festival of Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a pagan festival of Rome, which was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and also celebrating the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. They would sacrifice animals, and force people to have sex, which sometimes lead to marriage. Not messed up at all, right? Yuck. Roman Catholicism counter-acted this to create St. Valentine’s Day, calling it a day for “love” and what marriage means for the church. Nowadays its lost all meaning related to Christian marriage, and instead its a way for corporations to snag a quick buck to make people feel like they should get something for their boo thing. (Yes. I just used the phrase “boo thing”. Deal with it.) So don’t be sad. Valentine’s Day has lost its original meaning, so buy yourself a Reese’s heart and support corporate America, or buy yourself a card with a baby shooting an arrow at someone’s butt.
- Buy Roses for a Friend You Care About, or Your Mom
- The best way to deal with being sad because you’re focusing on yourself (because Valentine’s Day is a great day to throw a pity party for yourself as a single person) is to shift your focus to other people. Do you know who loves roses? Your mom. Buy your mom roses. She cleaned your butt when you pooped in diapers, and (probably) did a lot more for you than that. If you don’t have a good relationship with your mom or she’s not around, buy roses / a card for a friend, and let them know how thankful you are for their friendship. You might be surprised with the outcome, because you’ll be happy, you’ll not feel so lonely, and so will they.
- Go See a Movie
- A fond Valentine’s Day memory of mine would be Valentine’s Day in 2013. A group of friends and I went and saw the sixth (and most likely last…or at least I hope the last) installment of the Die Hard movies, “A Good Day to Die Hard”. While the movie was probably one of the worst / nonsensical / plotless movies I have ever seen, it was a great night. You might be asking, “how can a night of watching such an awful movie be great?” Well, it’s simple. It was a great way to not focus on being mopey about being single, but instead focus on explosions, guns, and certain catchphrases that will be left out of this blog post, though it does start with “yippee” and ends with “er”.
- Read Scripture
- I realize that this sounds like Christianese crap, I assure you it is not. While a lot of Christians would just say “just read your Bible. God is enough for you.” I’m not going to say that (even though I just did mockingly). When we read the Bible, certain parts of Scripture push us to be honest with God. Feeling lonely and sad? Read Psalm 142. David was LITERALLY alone in a CAVE when he wrote this, and was definitely super sad. It’s the ODC (Original Dashboard Confessional [if you don’t know who Dashboard Confessional is, I’m sorry you missed out on the best teen angst music of all time]). Need to be reminded of who you are in Christ? Read Ephesians to remember your identity. Biblical characters are also completely transparent with their feelings to God. Heck, Jonah asks God to kill him like a mouthy teenager would to a friend. If we read Scripture, we’re reminded of how good our God is, and can be encouraged to be honest with God through prayer. You might just hear an answer with prayers that honest.
- Stay Off Social Media
- If you can’t be ridiculous and post Taylor Swift lyrics all day with #Relatable and have a laugh without seeing all the cutesy people in relationship posts and wanting to cry, just stay off social media for the day. Better is one man (or woman) without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (and whatever else people use) for a day, than one laying in a pool of their own tears. (That’s a proverb, isn’t it?) But seriously. If being on social media and seeing people in relationships going on cute dates and posting about each other is going to make you jealous, hate someone, or mopey, DON’T EVEN GO THERE YA DINGUS.
So these were my top 10 tips on having a successful Valentine’s Day as a single person. If you get a date or a “boo-thing” by Valentine’s Day, good for you! If not, hopefully these tips can be of service. Remember, you are Loved and never alone.