I like to think of Valentine’s Day as the holiday that people love to hate.

Back in elementary school, Valentine’s Day was simple. Everyone would make valentines for every student in the class, so no one would feel left out. At the designated hour, we would drop our love notes into the meticulously decorated boxes that we had prepared in addition to the valentines. Everyone felt loved and, more often than not, there was candy. Everyone comes out a winner if there’s sugar involved.

I would hold out hope every year that a secret admirer would send me a valentine on this special day proclaiming their undying love for me. Each Valentine’s Day, I waited for the box of chocolates accompanied by a loving note, signed only “xoxo.” As the years ticked by, however, I realized that these dreams of mine would never come to fruition.

High school, on the other hand, brings a dark day for the lonely and a glowing day for those in love. The balloon store advertises for weeks their selling of presents that you can buy for your significant other. The day itself brings heart-shaped jewelry, red shirts and, unfortunately, swooning couples. Nuzzling noses and held hands are a common sight on this day of “romance.”

There are also some legitimate claims against it. Major concerns held by the public include the excessive shipping of sparkly teddy bears that pollutes the air, the depression that wracks single people everywhere and the overall commercialization of the holiday. It upsets me too, watching the giggling girls wander the halls with their bundles of balloons and chests of chocolates. It just doesn’t upset me that much.

Having been single for every Valentine’s Day that I’ve been alive, one might assume that I hate the day of love with a fervor equal to that of my unattached peers.

One would be wrong.

For all my melodramatic fusses, the casual debacles that cause me to drop into a pit of despair, I love the day of love.

I’m partial to romantic movies and their inevitable happily-ever-after endings. Valentine’s Day is the one day in the year that I respect people’s love, be it freshmen pairs or elderly folk still in love after years and years, best friends forever or sibling connections, couples in long distant relationships or those who are very, very much together here and now (unless they are under the impression that I’d like a not-so-private viewing of their sordid love lives. I don’t have any appreciation for so-called teenage love). On this day alone, I like the idea that soulmates are real, the belief that the one is out there just waiting for me.

This is the single day I won’t mock those who lovingly swap spit–although I do run as far as possible when such an exchange occurs. Basically, Valentine’s Day is the only time all year I will give up my confidently sustained cynical morals and let the love shine.

Valentine’s Day is over commercialized. The excessive production of pink products for one day is ridiculous. Love can be shown without burying your significant other in a small pile of chocolate and fluffy objects.

Valentine’s Day is hurting the environment. Consumers lack control when they are in love, it seems, proven by the lavish amount of useless gifts purchased for the day. By using basic economics, you will discover that supply typically rises to reach demand. Therefore, massive quantities of heart-shaped everything are being shipped to us from factories where children and women are being paid little to nothing an hour to create our frivolous and, in the long run, undervalued gifts.

But that’s not what this day is about. It’s about recognizing human capacity for loving another, be it your best friend or your sister or your one true love or your cat. Love is a really freaking beautiful thing and, speaking as a self-proclaimed Negative Nancy, it is incredibly unappreciated. Mocked, even. Movies where large metal objects take over New York City and step on a lot of cars (Who cleans that up?! That’s the most frustrating thing for me. You can’t just knock down an entire city without some repercussions. The poor janitors!) are viewed as more realistic than your classic happily-ever-after tale. And I find that to be an incredibly saddening concept.

For all you depressed singles out there, remember that I am among your ranks. Sure, I’d like to be tucked under an arm and showered with kisses on Valentine’s Day. But I have so much love in my life in different places that it hardly seems necessary to get all sad because I’m #foreveralone. Nobody loves you? Talk to your friends. Talk to your mom. Talk to the kids you babysit or your pet chinchilla. There’s at least one person out there who loves you and, while you might not want to make out with them, they’re going to be there for you and might have a cute card with a heart-shaped chocolate attached.

Let me reiterate: everyone wins when there’s sugar involved.