I want to know who is the mastermind behind what I believe is the second, maybe third, dumbest holiday in the United States (sweetest day is number one on my list)? Who dreamed up Valentines Day? Who decided that one day a year we should tell the one, or ones, we love that we love them? Is this not absurd? Would it not be better to declare our love whenever we darn well feel like it, then to say on February 14th of every year I will tell you I love you because I’m supposed to?

I am not one of those “oh poor me, I’m single, I hate the rest of the world for being in relationships” kind of girls. It doesn’t matter if I’m single, or not, I have always hated the holiday. My boyfriend hates it too. We just think it’s stupid to have to have one day where people are reminded to say I love you. A day that everyone, everywhere is supposed to think about love. I’ll tell you when to think about love, every Monday. There you go. Monday, the day most hated for being synonymous with back to work or back to school, that’s the day we all need love most. So next time it’s Monday (hey, it’s Monday today), send some flowers, buy some chocolate or just tell your partner, or yourself, that you love them.

And this way, no one, not someone in a bad relationship, or someone desperately seeking a relationship, has to feel validated, or lonely, or anxious about February 14th. And even those of us “in love” don’t have to worry about how unoriginal we are on this one particular day of the year.

Besides love isn’t bought with money and if it is then it isn’t the kind of genuine, heartfelt love that most people seek. Or is it? Maybe the original purpose of Valentines Day was to sell love through money. It is after all a hallmark holiday. But money can’t buy you love. It can buy you good sex (with a high priced sex worker). Or at least sex. But that’s all.

So, whatever it is that gets you going this week, let it be anything other than Valentines Day. Because love is something that you should feel everyday. Whether it’s self-love or shared love. Love is something you should desire all the days of your life, and not just one day a year. So love a lot and love often, but don’t love because it’s the 14th of the second month of the year.