Every year as Valentines comes around, red balloons and heart shaped candy stain the aisles of our local supermarkets and convenience stores. For couples, it is an excuse to dress up, go out to dinner and buy each other gifts. But for many, the holiday serves as a reminder of what they do not have.
Society romanticizes relationships and pushes for young people to seek out someone to marry, someone to start a family with. Valentines Day, a day, in reality, meant only to be celebrated by couples and married pairs, supports this notion.
“I find Valentine’s Day to be the definition of a hallmark holiday, there really is no point to it, except to celebrate what I know I don’t have and make me want to search for it,” Walter Johnson senior Caroline Kennon said.
Valentine’s Day fails to celebrate those that are fine living a single life. There are plenty of successful men and women who are not at that point in their lives or simply don’t see the point in having a romantic companion.
We live in a selfish world, where people should know you have it all, but you shouldn’t have to tell them. Society carries a certain status quo that a large part of the world’s youth is trying to fight against.
Society pulls us to be perfect in a variety of ways — whether it be in our education or social life, there are set expectations they want us to follow. The balance is almost impossible to achieve – we’re expected to work hard in school but not be a nerd, go to a good college, get a worthwhile degree and then a job. While doing all of that you have to fall in love and get married in order to be deemed successful in life.
Valentines Day makes the pressure of the world bear down on young people more extremely due to the representation of the relationships they should be having surrounding them everywhere.
“I wish that Valentine’s Day placed less stress on the love in a relationship and more on love in general whether it’s with family, friends or yourself,” Walter Johnson student Holly Darby said.
Self love seems to be one of the biggest benefits to youth today. Unfortunately dealing with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, Valentines Day and the reminder of expectation could trigger people struggling with mental health.
An emphasis on the care of yourself through the love that is broadcasted through Valentines Day could make the holiday much more effective and worthwhile to celebrate. The Holiday should be morphed into celebrating love in general, not just romantic relationships.
In the world we live in today, it is already so hard to grow up with our lives being constantly broadcasted on social media. Not only does the reminder of Valentines Day remind people of what they don’t have, but their peers’ constant lovey dovey posts on Instagram and Snapchat add to the inevitable loneliness.
“The holiday just solidifies what the world wants me to and, to be honest, makes me want to do it less,” continued Kennon.
Article by Lily Salvatore of Walter Johnson High School
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons