Out of all the months of the year, February has to be the dullest (apologies to those February babies out there). It’s the second month of the year, which means that big celebrations like Halloween and Christmas are far in the past, and the excitement of it being a new year has worn off by now. February’s saving graces are Black History Month and the fact that it’s the shortest month at only 28 days –– or 29 in a leap year — another reason to put it at the bottom of the list because that gets confusing.

Perhaps the worst part of February is its defining holiday, Valentine’s Day. What started off as a pagan fertility celebration morphed into a Christian tradition to celebrate St. Valentine, which then devolved into a commercialized, sexist, and expensive holiday (you can also blame poet Geoffery Chaucer and his poem for its modern-day iteration). 

But maybe I’m just being cynical. I’m not one of those complaining single girls who is going to change my mind as soon as I find someone — I’m not single. I simply have never been one for grand romantic gestures and symbols. I think that the symbol of a baby shooting arrows at people is strange and morbid. I have always known that doves are the same bird species as pigeons, therefore making them glorified flying rats. 

There is some substance to my case, however: why should we pressure people (stereotypically men) to make this one day perfect for their significant other (stereotypically women) when it would be a more enjoyable surprise to do something small but meaningful on any other day? Besides that, the holiday is also often hurtful. Dedicating a whole holiday to celebrating love and relationships can feel isolating to single people, aromantic and asexual people, and people who just aren’t in a relationship for whatever reason. It’s one step backward in recognizing that our society doesn’t have to be so romance-focused all the time.

St. Valentine, by the way, was also the patron saint of beekeeping and epilepsy, not just love. Why don’t we use the hundreds of dollars we would otherwise spend on chocolate and dinner reservations to help save the bees, or to fund epilepsy research and charity in celebration of him? Just an idea.