Do you remember back in elementary school what Valentine’s Day was like? Picture it with me in your minds. There are about 30 of your peers all in the same situation celebrating the same holiday. Everyone is excited to give and receive valentines. It’s a day focused on everyone loving everyone, and eating a lot of sugar.
Now fast forward to today. You are a twenty-something single adult and it is Valentine’s Day? What do you do? Sit home and moan about how bad things are? President Hinckley said, “Nothing is ever so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse.” So, how can we make Valentine’s Day better instead of worse? Remember, as Elaine Jack said, “Charity is the work of the heart”
What if we took on the same mentality as bunch of school children? Think of how many people are in your ward, or your own home, or your neighborhood who are also single and very aware of it on this holiday. What if we all tried to show love to as many people as possible on Valentine’s Day? (We could even include the sugar coma in the process)
Who Can You Show Some Love to on Valentine’s Day?
How do we show that love in meaningful ways? The truth is that it will be different for everyone who is sharing and receiving that love. May I offer a few suggestions of ways that you could spend your time?
First, you could make a whole bunch of heart-shaped cookies and doorbell ditch them to your neighbors. If you made just one batch you could surprise 12 people and help them be remembered!
Second, you could go around and heart attack your friends with tons of paper hearts. You could even write things on the hearts that you love about them, their personality, and their character, or maybe even list ways that they have helped other people to feel loved.
Third, you can call your family. I bet your Mom, Dad or sibling would be really excited to get an extra valentine from you–A gift of your time.
Fourth, reinvent Hug a Stranger day. Make a shirt that says free hugs and go around hugging as many people as possible.
Fifth, use a play on words. Go kiss someone! or aka put Hershey kisses all over their pillow, their kitchen table, their car, their desk, or anywhere else.
Sixth, Get together with a group of your friends and go valentine caroling. This may sound odd, but you could really brighten up someone’s day if you appear on their door step singing “Can you feel the love tonight.” This I have tried myself and find to be most entertaining. If you want to kick it up a notch try dressing up in formal attire before you go, and maybe even deliver a flower or two along your way.
Really, it doesn’t matter what you do, just don’t sit at home and feel sad. There is too much to be happy about. There is too much love that you can give. So be creative, and you may find out that single awareness is really just being are of the one and making a difference in someone’s life, or maybe it is so titled because one single person being aware can really make a difference!
Jack, Elaine S. “Strengthened in Charity” http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1996/10/strengthened-in-charity?lang=eng&query=charity
Ashley Dewey is extremely talented at being single. Hobbies include awkward conversations with members of the opposite sex, repelling third dates, talking to boys about their girl problems and to girls about their boy problems. In her spare time she also has a very fulfilling school life, work life, and social life.
Besides being a professional single, Ashley is also a BYU graduate with a degree in linguistics (Aka word nerd). She enjoys studying other languages, particularly American Sign Language, and finds most all of them fascinating. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in Teaching English as a Second Language.
Ashley works most of the time and has often been accused of being a workaholic. Currently she works full time as a merchandiser and supervisor in a retail store, and part time doing social media work. On her day off she works (really it doesn't feel like work) in the Provo LDS temple. The only kind of work she finds difficulty focusing on is house work.
Her favorite activities in her free time are reading, writing, creating social experiments, and spending time with great friends and family. Specific activities with those family and friends include: going to concerts, plays, dance recitals, BYU basketball and football games, and watching sports on television.
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