I Hate Valentine's Day

When I was growing up, I hated Valentine's Day because I often found myself alone.  Now that I'm grown and married, I just hate Valentine's Day because it's dumb.

I hate Valentine's Day because it is a day where you do something special for your loved one because society tells you its expected, which defeats the whole point. I dislike it because it's a day where men express their unique connection with their wives by buying either jewelry, flowers or chocolate, just like everyone else.

I despise it because it's a day of overcrowded restaurants, overpriced flowers, and overhyped obligations.

It's even worse if you're single, and you spend the day hearing society telling you that it's a day when you don't matter at all.

I don't think Valentine's Day is even necessary. If you are in a good relationship, the other half of it probably regularly expresses their love for you.  If you aren't, then one night of empty gestures doesn't fix the problem.  If anything, it just makes it worse by providing a temporary false sense of hope that ultimately just prolongs the misery.

The best argument for Valentine's Day is that even happy couples sometimes get overburdened with their respective life obligations and don't make time to do romantic things together.  Valentine's Day provides a day to do that. 

That perspective makes sense to a degree, but the few times I've actually gone out on Valentine's Day I've been struck by how unremarkably romantic the scene actually is. 

Restaurants are overcrowded, service is slow, and the table next to you is pushed uncomfortably close.  Hurried waiters provide poor service, and the restaurant might not even be serving its full menu. 

If you're like me, then amidst the chaos, it inevitably occurs that you ask yourself why you came out to fight all this madness in the first place. It occurs that if you had just used Valentine's Day as a reminder to make reservations for sometime in March, you'd be having an exponentially better time for a fraction of the price. 

"But it's Valentine's Day," you think, "so we felt like we should go out."

And then, as I think that same thought, I'm reminded why I hate Valentine's Day.