Valentine's Day vs Singles Awareness Day
We ended up working a little overtime today, so all the thoughts I had on the thing I was thinking about maybe posting about have been forgotten. Not that they would have been coherent to begin with.
See, yesterday, we got invited to a Singles Awareness Day party, and although the person means well by it, it has us annoyed. Athena has pointed out that it's not nice to assume that someone is still going to be single over a month before Valentine's Day, but I think what bothers me more is the fact that people are already hating on Valentine's Day when it's not even February yet.
Of course neither of us has ever had a romantic Valentine's Day, and it would be reasonable to assume that we, too, would feel sad and left out, thus liking the idea of Singles Awareness Day. In fact, the first time we heard about Singles Awareness Day (freshman year of college), our reaction was, "Ha ha, that's funny!" But now it makes me mad.
I can't really explain why it makes me so mad, because there are a lot of factors, and I have better things to do (usually (obviously I don't have better things to do right now)) than brood on it long enough to narrow it down to a "main" reason. But first and foremost, I'm really, really tired of people hating on holidays.
When we were in elementary school, any holiday was an excuse to have a fun activity to break away from the monotony of regular school. Obviously nobody in elementary school had a boyfriend or girlfriend (well, there were probably a few, but we think they were probably moving way too fast, and/or trying too hard to grow up), so nobody felt especially left out...though come to think of it, I wonder if these days kids are getting into that stuff super early. It's been a loooooong time since we've been in grade school.
But the point is! it doesn't matter if you have a boyfriend/girlfriend or not! It's just a day to maybe do something nice if you feel like it. And if you don't feel like it, then don't.
Maybe we just get this way because we go shopping so rarely. Holidays tend to be more obvious when you're somewhere that's trying to make money off of them. When we went to the grocery store on Christmas Eve, they already had a big Valentine's section. And I can understand not wanting that shoved in your face when you're sad about not having a significant other. But the thing is you shouldn't take it personally. They're not trying to say there's anything wrong with you for not having any reason to buy their stuff (though I guess some marketers might say that, but it's a lie); they're just saying, "Hey, we have something seasonal! Give us money!" In fact, if you don't have a significant other, that just means you have more power over them, because you have no nagging reason to spend more money than you want to! Tadah!
The other thing is (and this is big too), we've seen what can happen to girls who are too eager to get into a relationship, and it isn't pretty. So when people start whining about being single, it sends up a red flag that starts yelling, "Danger! Danger!" ...Okay, so it actually doesn't start yelling that; it's more like a little mumbled "Danger... danger..." because usually there's no immediate threat. But you get the idea.
Today I'm thankful for hearing the FedEx guy knock (that was a really quiet knock; now we know why he thought he missed us last time), Valentine's Day, excuses to do fun activities and/or eat chocolate, being done with work for today, and having shiny new CDs.
See, yesterday, we got invited to a Singles Awareness Day party, and although the person means well by it, it has us annoyed. Athena has pointed out that it's not nice to assume that someone is still going to be single over a month before Valentine's Day, but I think what bothers me more is the fact that people are already hating on Valentine's Day when it's not even February yet.
Of course neither of us has ever had a romantic Valentine's Day, and it would be reasonable to assume that we, too, would feel sad and left out, thus liking the idea of Singles Awareness Day. In fact, the first time we heard about Singles Awareness Day (freshman year of college), our reaction was, "Ha ha, that's funny!" But now it makes me mad.
I can't really explain why it makes me so mad, because there are a lot of factors, and I have better things to do (usually (obviously I don't have better things to do right now)) than brood on it long enough to narrow it down to a "main" reason. But first and foremost, I'm really, really tired of people hating on holidays.
When we were in elementary school, any holiday was an excuse to have a fun activity to break away from the monotony of regular school. Obviously nobody in elementary school had a boyfriend or girlfriend (well, there were probably a few, but we think they were probably moving way too fast, and/or trying too hard to grow up), so nobody felt especially left out...though come to think of it, I wonder if these days kids are getting into that stuff super early. It's been a loooooong time since we've been in grade school.
But the point is! it doesn't matter if you have a boyfriend/girlfriend or not! It's just a day to maybe do something nice if you feel like it. And if you don't feel like it, then don't.
Maybe we just get this way because we go shopping so rarely. Holidays tend to be more obvious when you're somewhere that's trying to make money off of them. When we went to the grocery store on Christmas Eve, they already had a big Valentine's section. And I can understand not wanting that shoved in your face when you're sad about not having a significant other. But the thing is you shouldn't take it personally. They're not trying to say there's anything wrong with you for not having any reason to buy their stuff (though I guess some marketers might say that, but it's a lie); they're just saying, "Hey, we have something seasonal! Give us money!" In fact, if you don't have a significant other, that just means you have more power over them, because you have no nagging reason to spend more money than you want to! Tadah!
The other thing is (and this is big too), we've seen what can happen to girls who are too eager to get into a relationship, and it isn't pretty. So when people start whining about being single, it sends up a red flag that starts yelling, "Danger! Danger!" ...Okay, so it actually doesn't start yelling that; it's more like a little mumbled "Danger... danger..." because usually there's no immediate threat. But you get the idea.
Today I'm thankful for hearing the FedEx guy knock (that was a really quiet knock; now we know why he thought he missed us last time), Valentine's Day, excuses to do fun activities and/or eat chocolate, being done with work for today, and having shiny new CDs.