It’s hard being single. But it’s especially hard at this time of year. The shops are full of flowers, tacky teddy bears and cards with sickeningly cheesey poems that are intended to help less eloquent people declare their love for one another in a less generic way.
For those you who have been hibernating in a cave I’m afraid to tell you that VALENTINE’S DAY is around the corner. It may be easy for us singletons (#englishrosiee is STILL totally available boys) to use this day as a time to wallow in self pity and drink themselves stupid on copious amount of glorious gin. However, I’m here to be the voice of reason for all you drama queens out there and to tell you there are WORSE fates than being single on the 14th of February.
1. Being in a LOVELESS Relationship
I promise you not everything you see shared on Facebook is real. Read between the lines. It’s easy to kid yourself that you are the ONLY chick left on the shelf when bombarded with peoples loved up coupley pictures. But remember the grass is not greener on the other side.
We’ve all been in relationships where we are forced to go through the motions of occasions like Valentine’s Day; buying the card, getting dressed up and paying a fortune for a fancy dinner that you’d pay half the price for any other day of the year,etc. But the truth is for many people the spark is dead and they’d rather be at home in their PJs. In these cases, you both sit their across the table looking into each others’ eyes but enviously wishing you were out partying the night away with your single friends.
2. Being in LIMBO
Ugh. Definitely a more horrible fate than being single.
You meet someone and warm to them. They tell you they want to be more than just friends and then BOOM ! Silence. There can’t be anything worse than mixed signals. They give you foot-popping kisses but then ignore you. There you were planning a lovely Valentine’s Day in your little imagination but their vibe gives you cause for concern. Sure, he could still redeem himself but time is precious and you are left wondering whether you should start swiping again instead of wasting head space on this dude.
3. Being DUMPED
Did you know the chances of a relationship ending increases rather dramatically in the run up to Valentine’s Day? In fact, experts have dubbed the Tuesday before the Valentine’s Day ‘Red Tuesday’ and claim this is the day you are most likely to get dumped.
Apparently the reasoning behind it boils down to the fact that all this tacky red stuff being sold in the shops forces people to reassess their relationships. For some that’ll mean grand declarations of love while for others it’ll mean out with the old…and in with the new (most likely the ‘new’ was already waiting in the wings).
Things might be liberating for the Dumper but spare a thought for the poor Dumpee who only has limited time to find an alternative date for V-DAY!
4. Being a SAD SPINSTER
Although the three scenarios above all suck. It could be worse. Anyone who has any sort of meaningful (or not) interaction with the opposite sex risks getting hurt but at least by putting yourself out their you are increasing the odds of finding happily ever after. Even if worse comes to worse a Tinderella will probably still be able to land herself a last minute date with an ‘Indian’ Prince.
This is not the case for the Sad Spinster who treats V-Day like any other – sitting all alone at home with her cats and a jar of peanut butter, hating on the opposite sex and celebrating another day of celibacy!
5. Being a BILLY-NO-MATES
Being single isn’t the end of the world especially if you have a few friends to hang out with. You can just embrace your singledom and go out sarging on Kloof Street with the gang !
Sadly, not everyone has friends. Maybe your one of those fools who put hos before bros a few too many times and now you’ve hit rock bottom you find that all those buddies you once had have disappeared.It may be a harsh lesson to learn but those who ditch their friends for ‘love’ might be the one’s most likely to find themselves cold and alone this Valentine’s Day.
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See my fellow singletons, life isn’t so bad. So lets stop indulging the misery and instead enjoy single time and all it has to offer…maybe next year you’ll be the one living the fairytale 🙂
So Rinsers share you thoughts on Valentine’s Day. Are you loved up? Finding it hard to be single and surrounded by all this loved-up nonsense or are you just living life Single and FABULOUS this year? Tell us in the comments below…
Wow …why so mad at the world?
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Not mad at the world at all. I intended it to be quite a positive post. The intention was to say that being single on Valentine’s Day might be hard but things could be worse.
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I think your opening lines …tacky teddy bears and cards with sickeningly cheesey poems that are intended to help less eloquent people declare their love for one another in a less generic way… came across as negative and mad like you’re punishing people for not being creative enough to write their own poems etc.
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Well…Some of that typical Valentine’s stuff isn’t particularly personal and I don’t personally appreciate it. I like romance that is a little more tailor made. It doesn’t need to be all over-priced chocolates and massive stuffed toys. I’d be just as happy with a smoked salmon bagel at 4am in the morning. But that’s me ! Not everyone is poet but receiving a roses are red, violets are blue poem won’t make me feel super special 😛 But each to their own….
My problem with Valentine’s Day is more that sometimes it feels like its not about intended on celebrating love but more about going through the motions. This ends up making single people sad. I don’t want the single people to be sad that’s why I wrote this post.
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ok its starting to make sense…but you hammered hard at the beginning so it made your message somewhat lost in the sauce if you get my meaning.
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Fair enough 😛
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How you feel about Valentine’s day can be how some feel about Christmas or birthdays. Just another side point some people aren’t very good with words hence Hallmark to the rescue. Lol
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Actions often speak louder than words … if people just focused in being nice then Hallmark would be redundant
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True but let’s be fair not everyone is a wordsmith and sometimes the right words work with the right actions…
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OK. I’ll let you have that 🙂
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Valentine’s day….Christmas etc. has become a hallmark windfall while the true meaning gets lost.
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Exactly. But what is the true meaning anyway? Sometimes I get the impression that Valentine’s Day just exists to remind single people that they are in fact SINGLE and to stress out people in a relationship to match up to some ideal by seeing who can have the most spectacular Valentine’s Day. It’s all a bit of an anti-climax in the end I guess. Just like New Year’s Eve.
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I think those are all pretty bad fates, but one that I was always warn people against is going broke on V-Day. Let’s say you’re in a loving committed relationship but fall into the hype of V-Day. Nothing worse then spending most of a paycheck on a date with someone who would understand if you said “Let’s just go out Friday night and spend 80% less than what we would on Valentine’s Day”.
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Well said. It’s so over rated. Isn’t it more romantic to do something low-key…stay in and watch movies and focus on your S.O than pay for an overpriced dinner out/ jewelry/chocolates which’ll be half price on Feb 15th.
Here is an interesting infographic for you : http://matadornetwork.com/pulse/infographic-real-cost-love-valentines-day/
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Valentine’s day is a celebration of love that can be celebrated in many ways and not always with a girlfriend, boyfriend, wife or husband it can be celebrated between good friends. You don’t have to go broke celebrating it though just as long as the celebration is quality. I stopped celebrating New Years 30 years ago, it was another excuse to get drunk.
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