COLUMN: Valentine's Day is for everyone

Fighting with yourself in the mirror, shut up inside in comfortable clothes and eating freshly baked cakes all alone - Valentine's Day has better things in store if you make the right move.
A romantics couple for Valentine's Day.A romantics couple for Valentine's Day.
A romantics couple for Valentine's Day.

Even at the tender age of eight I used to celebrate the day thanks to a long-standing family tradition.

“It is one day when God allows you to love someone more than you love Him,” my mum would say. Each person from the clan was required to invite one of our closest friends over for dinner on the 14th.

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For me, it used to be one of my classmates for a very long time, for my parents it was either a colleague, a distant relative or an old friend if any of them happened to be in town.

Years passed and I started noticing those thin lines of agitation on my mum’s forehead when I was 17 and still accompanied by the same gender - although it is something we can laugh about now.

Babyhood, puberty and soon adolescence arrived, which made this tradition look like a stupid one.

Bringing someone home killed the option of going out on a romantic date, without any parental interruption, and all the possibilities thereafter. However, after my first break up at 19 it started making much more sense. I wasn’t fighting with pillows on this hyped-up day as I still had someone visiting me (I was forced to send an initiation), I still got a gift, I still had my chance to dress-up and look my best.

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I stay many miles away from home for my degree, but boyfriend or no boyfriend I always have big plans for Valentine’s.

I drive back home, invite my closest companion and have wine flowing in my glass and laughter bursting from the bottom of my heart, all night long.

So this Valentine’s Day why not get in touch with your long-lost school friend, or organize a lovely outing for a teacher you are still in contact with.

Better still, plan a date-night with your parents.

The other option is to ask if your ex is still single.

People say that you can never just be friends - so why not kick-start the engine once more, and see if it turns hot or not.

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The best part of such a reunion is that you both can now joke about things that went wrong and remember things that brought you both together in the first place.

Second easy-going chances often rekindle the lost spark! If not, things which end on a happy note are always good to remember anyway.

After all, the day is all about sharing love, showing love, no matter who it is with.