Buy Yourself a Valentine’s Day Gift
Last Valentine’s Day, I bought myself a box of chocolate truffles – not cheap items that you can buy at any grocery store, but high-quality local confectionery where you pick exactly which truffles you want and put gold ribbon around them. box for you.
I’m pretty sure they didn’t realize that I was buying the entire box just for myself.
I gave up sugar this year (I actually dropped refined sugar from my diet about six months ago; everything is going great), so I didn’t even think about buying anything for myself – and then I realized that a little music for the piano that I ordered earlier a month later was going to arrive in the mail today and I immediately started thinking of it as a surprise Valentine’s Day gift.
Because as a woman who has been single for most of her adult life, I learned that you should give yourself the kind of gifts that all these couples can receive from their partners. Otherwise, when will you ever enjoy them?
These types of gifts fall into three categories:
- Traditional / stereotypical gifts: chocolates, decorations, etc.
- Tech and Household Gifts: The Fitbit Charge 3 I bought myself for Christmas two years ago, the Instant Pot I bought last Black Friday.
- Purely personal gifts: a little thing that you wanted forever, which will be obvious only to those who communicate with you on a regular basis; in my case the complete piano score Undertale
When I bought myself the Undertale score from Fangamer last December, I wrapped it up (I literally wrapped the box it came in without opening it first) and put it under the tree. I could have opened it as soon as it arrived, but it was much more fun to wait – and trust me, it’s interesting to know that no matter what happens during your special holiday season, be it travel stress, family drama, or the prospect If you sit next to a small pile of gifts from relatives that have been chosen thoughtfully, but not necessarily knowledgeably, you will have at least one gift that you need.
Plus, as I unwrapped the package (on my own, at my own holiday), I realized that Fangamer had stuffed a bunch of bonus items inside a piano book, like Stardew Valley postcards – which meant it felt like unpacking a surprise too.
So if you are lonely, lonely or lonely this Valentine’s Day, give yourself a gift. Find whatever you want someone else to wrap for you – be it chocolate, a book you’ve long wanted to read, or tables in a really trendy restaurant – and give yourself a gift. In an ornate box with a gold ribbon, if you like.
Because another thing I have learned after so many years of loneliness is that you cannot wait for someone else to give you what you need.