Every year on Feb. 14, people celebrate Valentine’s Day. It’s a staple holiday celebrating the one thing everyone wants: love. Although many people are in relationships and have people to celebrate with, even more people don’t have a significant other to dress up nice with and go to an expensive restaurant.

Another issue I have with the holiday is that single people are roped into Valentine’s Day as well. Everywhere you go, stores are selling love-shaped chocolates at a low price, and it’s impossible to escape the pink and red-themed decorations. Valentine’s Day is such an excessively celebrated holiday for a country where only half of the population has a significant other.

As someone who is in a relationship, I find Valentine’s Day is a nice holiday, but the hype leading up to Feb. 14 is certainly overrated. I feel that society puts pressure on people to go out and buy expensive things, and spend money on an expensive night to show that you love someone. However, love isn’t defined by material objects. I think the holiday itself is fine, there’s nothing wrong with going out on a romantic night with your partner, but the notion that money has to be spent to show how much you love someone is completely stupid. 

A very common theme among humans is to spend large sums of money on unnecessary objects to prove how important people are to us. Although it’s nice to spoil your friends or lovers with objects, real relationships are never defined by materialistic things. Most of the time, the couples that post each other on social media every day and give each other large gifts are just compensating for all of the holes in their relationships. 

Valentine’s Day is the holiday for love, but I think it’s apparent that materialism has ruined a holiday that should be focused on spending time with your loved ones. Instead of extravagant purchases, couples should just try to spend quality time with each other, maybe go for a walk in the woods or a picnic on the beach. It’s hard to enjoy each other’s company when you force yourself into a public restaurant with 30 other couples nearby that also have fallen victim to the social pressure of Valentine’s Day.

For me, the idea that love needs to be celebrated on a specific day of the year makes no sense. Love isn’t something that only happens once a year. Movies and TV shows make it seem like everyone is emotionally numb for 364 days of the year, but once Feb. 14 hits, everybody’s heart is in their throats. People who know real love understand that the tacky holidays and celebrations don’t define their relationships, they know that love is getting through the hard parts of relationships.

Valentine’s Day is a fun excuse to spend time with your partner, but it’s important to understand that love isn’t defined by how much money you spend on each other. Relationships aren’t just sunshine and rainbows, and it’s important to understand that Valentine’s Day isn’t the most important day of the year for you and your partner.