My Silly Un-Valentine Rant

 

By Ogheneochuko Yesioh

Valentine’s Day is the day for modern romance, fueled by consumerism and the show off culture enabled by social media. Chocolates, wines, roses, jewelry, cakes, beautifully wrapped red boxes are among the few items that make the modern version of an ideal Valentine’s Day celebration.  Single or coupled up, I’ve never been a fan of Valentine’s day romance and I believe that love doesn’t have to be constantly fueled by the buzzing of butterflies in my stomach or validated by the price tag of the last gift received.

Barely two months after the Christmas and new year holidays, we are faced with another holiday; another excuse to buy more stuff and give more gifts, right before Easter.

What justifies setting aside a single day to celebrate love as opposed to the other 364 days? Is it that we suddenly forget our partners’ nasty habits like leaving their clothes lying everywhere or forgetting to take out the trash?

I low-key think it’s a conspiracy by large corporations in partnership with small businesses. I mean, look at the large amount of generated from the purchase of gifts and service reservations. There’s so much money to be harvested from this one day celebration of love. No wonder it has thrived from the Middle Ages until now.

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I’ll be celebrating this Valentine, single, at work,  because it’s a Thursday. Then after work, I’ll probably spend a few hours in Lagos traffic trying to make my way home. I expect to have been constantly barraged with pictures of expensive gifts and outrageous display of love both offline and online.  Maybe someone, or two people in my office will have a breakfast platter or a bouquet of roses or a car delivered as a gift, I don’t know. But I plan to go home, take a long bath, open a bottle of wine, pour myself just one glass, and go to sleep as early as I can because there’s work on Friday.

So if you’re single like me,  there’s no reason to cry your eyes out or get frustrated by how lonely you feel.  If you’re a couple it’s not worth breaking up over if they fall short of your Valentine expectations.  Valentine is just one day and this too shall pass.