valentine’s day? valentine’s day!
hello to all! i hope this festive season—Lunar New Year, Lent, Valentine’s Day, et cetera—is treating all of you readers with the utmost love and respect.
i feel like february is a difficult month. for those of us with a myriad of assignments and exams rather than vacations and getaways, or an unforgiving dorm mattress to return to rather than a cozy childhood bedroom, this month of love and celebration can feel all too isolating.
though a lot of us have learned to hate Valentine’s Day, i just wanted to write a little piece on why i love today and why you should too. love isn’t limited to romance, and, even so, romance is so much more than between two people. romance is lighting scented candles, single-serve dinners, and people watching to bide the time. romance is whatever and wherever you make it. as long as there’s beauty, some innate tenderness, or even just the feeling of a tiny spark, there’s romance. and in romance, there’s love.
i know it’s corny to say that love is everywhere, but it really is. i strongly believe that with a more romanticized mindset, days like these that seemingly feel like reminders that we are “alone” can instead serve as a day of gratitude and excitement. sure, perhaps you don’t have a “valentine,” but what does that mean? that means a whole lifetime of trials and tribulations, of love and wonder, awaits you. today i celebrate all of the love i do have: for my family, whom i admit that i miss just a tad while i am swept up in schoolwork; for my cats, who i wish i could cuddle tonight; for the barista who made my vanilla matcha today, because for once it wasn’t too sweet; for my lovely friends, because they make me laugh too much. i am alive, and i am full of love for so many people and so many things. i love my materialistic things, my sentimental values—i love it all.
“love” is the only word i can say a billion times without feeling redundant. everything i say has probably been regurgitated by others a million times over because of today’s holiday, but hey, don’t shoot the messenger. after all, is there anything redundant when it comes to love?
