With Valentine’s Day having quickly come and gone, the intensive search to find the “perfect date” is in high heat. Stress quickly arises, and individuals push themselves to the limit in order to make sure that their V-day becomes one filled with love and joy.

The 5-foot Costco bears come out from hibernation, and aspiring lovers are stuck wanting to be gifted these cuddly monsters from unknown admirers. The wait continues all the way until this time next year when these hopeless romantics, yet again, think of the 14th as more of a love dream rather than their own love story. 

But singles, wait no more. The perfect love spell to solve this lonely epidemic has come underway. And it may have been way more simple than one may have thought. 

You. That’s right. For years, hopefuls on Valentine’s Day have wanted roses and chocolates from other individuals when the whole time, these standards on having a ‘love’ could have been completely torn apart by them simply loving themselves. Why wait around for someone to appreciate your beauty when you can recognize it yourself?

Now, I know what you may be thinking, how would a day of self-indulgence be fun? Well for starters, you don’t need to wait around for anybody. You can go dance however you want to dance and rise to the double standard society places on you of having a ‘bae’ to share the day of love with. Self-love is the key to realizing just how awesome of a person you really are and you don’t need to waste your time waiting for someone to show you that. 

When asking sophomore Madisyn Lambrakis why, in fact, V-day is better alone, she said, “[It is] so much fun because you get to appreciate yourself and love yourself because you know what, you got to do that sometimes.” Self-appreciation is an extremely great thing to have; what better day to grow some more than on the day of love itself? 

So, no need to go post a Snapchat that says, “Who wants to be my Valentine’s babe?” or even make a farmersonly.com profile because you don’t need anyone to stay “bae”-utiful.