For centuries, Valentine’s Day has manifested itself in wrapped roses, kisses and synonymy with the idea of romantic love. However, love isn’t just candlelit dinners and heart-shaped chocolates — it’s late-night talks with friends, warm greetings from family and unwavering support from chosen communities. With the advent of Galentine’s Day in 2010, February has slowly evolved to encompass love and its many definitions, yet this atypical representation still takes a backseat in cultural conversations.
This Valentine’s Day, we should embrace friendship and familial love in our celebrations. These relationships are just as powerful and vital in shaping our lives and are just as worthy of admiration.
“(Familial love) is something people don’t really talk about,” said Jen Hill, a marriage and family therapist associate. “It’s so important that we not just look for love with a romantic partner, but that we look to other sources of love and support in our lives as well.”
Oftentimes, family members are the first ones to teach us how to love. Parents and siblings provide lifelong, unconditional support, shaping our understanding of love from childhood rather than entering our lives later like a romantic partner. These blood relations provide a unique experience that simply cannot be recreated through a romantic partnership. Hill discusses the growing connection with her sister in the wake of their father’s passing.
“The way that we came together to navigate that as sisters really grew (our connection) because of how we showed up for each other in a way that nobody else could understand,” Hill said. “Our love and appreciation for each other is stronger because we had that experience together.”
However, familial ties are inherently complex due to our lack of control over the relations we are born into. When people have rocky relationships with their kin, sometimes we must lean on other individuals for comfort. Thus, friendships can provide a similarly meaningful or even more sincere connection.
“Friendship-type love is so important and can be so transformative,” Hill said. “The beauty of friendship is you can never have too many. They surpass relationships. They surpass marriage.”
One way to celebrate these meaningful connections is by embracing community-driven events that honor love in all its forms. For instance, Toybrary, a children’s toy-borrowing business, will host a Valentine’s Day event featuring card-making and cookie decorating for family members to bond and express their love for one another.
“We usually do Valentine’s Day cards that (the kids) can send to family members or grandparents or give to Dad or Mom,” Toybrary owner Lisa Wilson said. “At this age, love to them is that they love their family and (friends), so we focus on that.”
Love comes in all shapes and sizes, and that abundance of beauty extends far beyond romantic relationships. Whether it’s the unwavering support of family, the deep bonds of friendship or the joy of shared experiences, these connections should be commemorated in concurrence with typical romance.
This Valentine’s Day, let’s redefine love and celebrate every version of it.
Lam is a computer science freshman from Mansfield, Texas.
