Love the one you’re with: yourself.
Not to get all whiny,but what I dislike about Valentine’s Day is the pressure it puts on people to be perfectly in love, dammit! I enjoy candy. I’m a big fan of love. But I have, at best, very mixed emotions, about a holiday that seems designed to make everyone feel bad about themselves and their romantic “status;” if you’re in a couple, it’s all about what did your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife do for you? How much do you get to show off? If you’re single, I suppose you’re supposed you should just feel that you failed.
There doesn’t seem to be any time, in all the manufactured drama and sentiment of Valentine’s Day for people to acknowledge that love is difficult, love takes time to grow, and that being in a relationship is hard, and being single is hard. There’s plenty of single people who are happy, and plenty of married people who fantasize about killing their spouse. You can be deeply in love with someone and still feel empty and alone. You can dislike someone and have tremendous desire for them. You can hate someone, and still miss them. People are complicated and emotions are hard. But everything gets harder if you don’t take the time to, first and foremost, have a loving relationship with yourself. So boring, but alas, so true.
I’ve had Valentine’s Days that I spent alone, shoving candy in my mouth, and other Valentine’s Days during which boys made me elaborate dinners. But until I became comfortable with myself, the fact that there was a boy, or there wasn’t, didn’t matter. (In case you’re wondering, I spent last night at a party here in Queens, just having fun.) Now, I just want to have fun. With fun in mind, a few weeks ago, I took some photos at Economy Candy (108 Rivington Street), the full photos are on my Facebook and Pinterest pages, but here’s something to whet your appetite. Whatever you did on Valentine’s Day, I hope it made you happy, and made you fall a little more in love with the most person in your life: that would be you, Sunshine!
