With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, I have two game plans. The first: to hang out with my housemates. The second: to hang out with my housemates. It’s not the fact that we haven’t had offers for Valentine’s Day dates, which were hard to turn down, or that we chide Valentine’s Day for being a hallmark holiday. Nor do we observe the day as the infamous S.A.D. — Single’s Awareness Day.

My roommate and I have simply decided to celebrate V-day in the comfort of our home with our seven other housemates. I figured it would be like elementary school. In the morning Courtney and I will set up the paper-made mailboxes around the house and at the end of the day collect our valentines and candy. Then we can spend the night eating homemade heart-shaped sugar cookies that we sprinkle ourselves and hand out to the rest of the house, so it’s fair.

You may think I’m joking. I’m not. Honestly, you should try it. First of all, the elementary awkwardness of delivering a valentine to your crush’s homemade mailbox is completely gone since we live in a house of girls. This also eliminates deciding what to write on those particular valentines.

I will never forget the look on Tyler Larsen’s face in third grade when I dropped his valentine in his box. He smiled with those big white teeth, and I looked down heading for the next box on my list since I had written the simple, but oh-so-powerful words, “I like you.” The night before, my mother encouraged me to write two just in case I changed my mind since I was fretting over those three words so much.

Secondly, I know I have always wanted one of those paper made mailboxes every year since 6th grade. Who doesn’t like getting mail – especially in a colorful made-with-care box? And especially who doesn’t want to come home to a mailbox full of love notes — even if they are from the people you live with. I never said no to my Mom’s notes in my lunchbox.

My main point is that V-day is a holiday of extremes. There are two types of people when it comes to Valentine’s Day. The affectionate love birds that unashamedly flaunt their “love” for each other. And then there is the person who is not in love, terribly single and is completely bitter about the idea of a holiday celebrating love so much so to create the acronym S.A.D.

Then there is me. I introduce you to a person who may be terribly single and not in love, but who, with a majority of her heart, enjoys singleness. The bitterness that I may have resonated with years ago — as in junior high — left me. I decided some point in my younger years there was no reason I couldn’t personally bask in the joy of a holiday simply because I was not in love.

So why don’t we go back to elementary school filled with paper valentines and shy crushes, without the bitterness? For once, look at children and take a token of their maturity level in not worrying about love.

If you are in love this Valentine’s Day then enjoy it, but don’t flaunt it. If you are single, enjoy the fact that there is a holiday, celebrate it with friends and make it an excuse to eat chocolate and candy for the day. I’m pretty sure that is the only reason kids like it anyway.