AS SINGLES AWARENESS DAY approaches, I only get more and more cynical toward a single day of the year selected for epic amounts of public displays of affection.

Why is it necessary to set a date in which love must be celebrated? I don’t think it has been overlooked so much that it requires a holiday.

Besides, isn’t that why couples celebrate anniversaries, to remind themselves why they love each other?

This making Feb. 14 a day to nationally rub it in the faces of those who do not have someone to say “I love you” in an extra special way along with millions of other people.

I am, surprisingly, lucky enough to have a special someone with whom I plan to not celebrate the infamous fake holiday.

In past years I have celebrated in an Anti-Valentine’s Day manner.

I would round up the girls, go to a restaurant and try to figure out how long the couples have been together, what else they have planned and how disappointed she is with the real life date compared to the one she worked up in her head.

I have also gone over the top and celebrated the day in remembrance of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Chicago, Feb. 14, 1929, seven members of the North Side gang lead by George Morgan were murdered in connection to Al Capone’s South Side Italian Gang.

The roaring twenties is my favorite decade in American history, which sways my attention to remember the day in this manner rather than with flowers and chocolate in a heart shaped box.

I also love irony, and it doesn’t get much more ironic than a massacre on the day designated to express feelings of love.

This year I plan to do something a little different. I am going to ignore the event in its entirety. I am going to treat the day just like any other day. Not a day of mourning or a day of mockery but a regular Thursday.

The last time I really enjoyed Valentine’s Day for what it is was when I was in elementary school and everyone decorated shoeboxes in pink and red and white construction paper.

We all handed out Valentine’s Day cards to one another, and you had to make one for everybody in the class, even if you didn’t like them.

But we got candy and it was a day where we never had to do much work, and as a child I was too naive to realize the whole thing was a joke.

I think my boyfriend appreciates the fact that he doesn’t have to give me flowers, because I think they are worthless anyway, and he doesn’t have to stress about the pressure of planning the perfect date.

I think picking a random day in August and doing something romantic, or fun, or just different, is a better way to express your feelings and not make others feel bad about their situation.