Singles Strike Back: Valentine’s Day your way

By Lethbridge Herald on February 14, 2026.

MORNING JOE- Joe Manio Lethbridge Herald

Every February 14, the world divides neatly into two camps: those posting photos of roses arranged like they’re auditioning for a royal wedding, and those quietly Googling things like, “Is it too early to eat the emergency chocolate?”

This is not bitterness. This is Singles Awareness Day — an observance for the chronically single adult who has lived long enough to see Valentine’s Day for what it really is: a highly coordinated, festive production.

For some, it can feel as though the world’s coupled-up bliss — including the birds and the bees — are reminding you of your singleness using their beaks and stingers.

As a child, Valentine’s Day was innocent enough. You handed out perforated cards featuring cartoon characters with suspiciously adult pickup lines (“I choo-choo-choose you”). There were chalky candy hearts stamped with commands like “Be Mine,” which felt less like romance and more like a polite threat.

Somewhere between adolescence and adulthood, Cupid didn’t just grow up — he got a marketing team.

To the chronically single adult, Valentine’s Day can feel less like a celebration of love and more like a reminder that everyone else received the memo. The card aisle becomes a museum of alternate timelines. Roses spike in price. Heart-shaped candy multiplies with alarming confidence. None of it is sinister — just overly enthusiastic marketing.

If you are actively searching for that special someone, a gentle observation: if your romantic strategy relies heavily on closing time and a mostly-eaten plate of wings at a local bar, you may want to diversify your methods. Romance born over last call is not impossible — just statistically ambitious.

Besides, with drink prices these days you’re probably better off investing in a dating site than hoping destiny is perched on the vinyl stool beside you.

If you continue to strike out, here’s a radical suggestion: stop looking.

If you’re miserable as a single, pairing up isn’t going to fix that. Relationships are great — but they are not emotional drywall. Expecting another person to become your primary source of happiness is a heavy lift.

I say this as someone who once loathed Valentine’s Day. I treated it like an annual performance review on my romantic shortcomings. For the record: I am now married, so take heart.

Eventually I learned that first, I was working the cliché of “looking for love in all the wrong places.” Second, I was treating a relationship as a solution to my loneliness — expecting someone else to do the internal renovation work.

Stop doubling down on the relationship search. Downshift or put it in park and start participating in life instead of auditing it.

While reporting on the Lethbridge Swing Bridge Dance group — which hosts free dance events where no partner is required — I met a couple who are now engaged. They didn’t arrive with an amorous agenda. They showed up to learn how to jitterbug.

Week after week, they were there for the music, the movement, the mild panic of not stepping on someone’s toes. They weren’t scanning the room. They were dancing. Eventually, something clicked.

There’s something quietly magical about that. The place where no partner was required turned out to be the place where one appeared.

It’s a reminder that a full life — hobbies, friendships, community halls filled with slightly off-tempo cha-cha — might actually be the point. Love, when it shows up, can be a byproduct of participation rather than a prize for strategic effort.

So this February 14, while couples exchange gifts and craft Instagram captions, opt out of the pressure.

Buy the chocolate for yourself (especially on February 15 at half-off). Go out with friends. Join a club — not necessarily a dance club, just something that interests you. Attend community events. Not to find someone. Just to live.

And if, somewhere between the second chorus and the last piece of discounted candy, someone happens to notice you? Well… that’s just good timing.