By Caitlin Woodstock

Valentine’s Day is a day filled with flowers, chocolate hearts, sweet tokens of love and affection and someone special to share it all with, right?

Wrong.

If you are one of the many who is not paired up, February 14 may seem a loathsome and lonely number on the calendar.

Contrary to popular belief, Valentine’s Day is a holiday to celebrate all kinds of love, not just the romantic kind that couples share. According to www. discoverychannel.com, the legend of Saint Valentine, the priest who secretly married young lovers during the reign of Emperor Claudius II in Rome, is a story of the courage and perseverance of the hero who promoted the unity of love. This unity and love binds not only lovers, but friends too.

“I’m going on a ‘date’ with my friend Caitlin,” said Sue Curzio, a freshman music education major at the University of Rhode Island. “We’re buying each other flowers and chocolate too. My friends and I tend to stick together on Valentine’s Day.”

Love of friends is where many college singles are channeling their affection this year.

“My friends are what are important to me right now,” said Deirdre Boyle, a sophomore communications major. “I’m going to visit a friend in Albany [N.Y.] and we’re going to cruise the bars around there. I’m going out to dinner with friends. It’s a ‘lets get dressed up and go out because it’s Valentine’s Day thing.”

Another single shares Boyle’s view.

“For now, I’m happy that I get to chill with the people I love,” said Margie Gorman, a sophomore sociology major.

Boyle and Gorman are in agreement that they would never seek out a relationship just for Valentine’s Day and they are more than satisfied to have the privilege of their friends’ affections on the designated day of love.

Some singles are just happy to avoid all of the holiday hype.

“I don’t really like Valentine’s Day in general because it’s lost its original meaning with St. Valentine,” said Matt Dunne, a freshman english major from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

“It has become too commercial; people think that they need to spend so much money on each other and that’s not what it’s about,” Boyle said.

Singles need not fret any longer, Valentine’s Day is a celebratory day for friends as well as lovers.