Snow days have filled up my last week so I literally have nothing new to write about, so I thought I could talk about something I'm sure a plethora of people are excited for. (psst. It's this Saturday.)

Valentine's day is coming up.

How do I know? Oh, only the massive plethora of overpriced chocolates and bright pink and ridiculously priced flowers in all the stores (but actually, why are you in my grocery store, I just want to get my veggies) and the massive plethora of Valentine's Day makeup tutorials and hair tutorials and outfit ideas and DIY gifts and recipes that are gracing my YouTube subscriptions page and my Pinterest.

And man, I hate Valentine's Day. I think it's the most ridiculous holiday ever.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for expressing your love towards others and showing affection and doing things to make them happy. I love it. I thrive on making little gifts for my sister and my friends and randomly doing the dishes for my roommates and writing notes for my friends when they're feeling stressed or down. My favorite thing to see on people's faces is a huge smile, so I like to try and put it there when I can.

But having a specific holiday, specially geared towards couples, and commercializing it? That's all wrong to me. For one day of the year, people like to spend ridiculous amounts of money on dinners (and having to make reservations weeks ahead of time) and chocolates and lingerie and flowers and for what? To demonstrate something that they already should be demonstrating? I understand the idea of wanting to have a special day to commemorate your love or whatever, but... make that your anniversary, or the day you went on a really cute date, or a birthday, or something, not something commercialized and advertised with a flying baby that carries a bow and arrow.

And the amount of sadness and loneliness that surrounds Valentine's day is heartbreaking, because I know girls that have lamented over having to spend this stupid holiday by themselves, or trying to find themselves a quick date specifically for Valentine's day because apparently if you're spending it alone and you've been alone for a long time there's something wrong with you. I know it, I've felt it, sometimes I still have doubts about myself and how I've been alone for literally so long, and every year without fail, my self-esteem dips just a little bit more because of Valentine's day and I spend the rest of the year trying to raise it up higher so that maybe the next time it dips again it won't hurt as much.

I know, boo hoo, woe is me, being a single woman for so long.

And I don't mind it, being alone. I have awesome friends, awesome roommates, people to love and people who love me back, and I get all the luxuries of not having to spend money on overpriced things or not having to shave until it starts getting warm or I have a performance and lazing around and being a total grandma like usual and not worrying about people judging me. It's just kind of weird when all my friends are pairing up around me (and I'm totally for it! I love matchmaking) and I'm not, because I start feeling like there's something wrong with me. And I don't think I should feel like that, I know I shouldn't feel like that, but I'm not quite sure how to fix it. I've been trying to do some serious self-love (like I mentioned in my New Year's Resolution post!) but like the years before, it's been wavering. Again.

Although I swear the next time I go back to China, if another relative asks me why I haven't found a boyfriend yet and mentions that it's "my time" because my older female cousin has a boyfriend even though my older male cousin is still living the single life, I will punch them. (Well, maybe not. I will chew them out though. My dad thinks it's hilarious when I pissed at my relatives for saying sexist things like that.)

I have noticed, though, that I feel the best about myself when I show love to others. I've been making it a personal goal to compliment someone I'm not familiar with a few times a week, even though it takes a lot for me to speak up and say things to people I don't know. I know how great it feels to be complimented, so I'm passing the love. And the smiles I've been getting? So worth it.

What are your thoughts on Valentine's Day? Do you like getting all dolled up for a special someone? Have you ever challenged yourself to compliment someone 3 - 4 times a week?