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\u201cSomething in your eyes took a thousand years to get here\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Generally speaking, Valentine\u2019s Day for me is an annoying reminder of \u201cbeing alone.\u201d Although the official <\/span>\u200b\u200b<\/b>Singles Awareness Day is on February 15, a day after Valentine\u2019s Day, February 14th seems like the day that makes me most aware of being single. Relating to\u00a0<\/span>this, I had a conversation with a close friend recently about the concept of \u201cbeing alone\u201d and the importance of focusing on the ways that we aren\u2019t alone instead of the ways that we are.<\/p>\n \u201cYou, I’m sure I’ve met long before\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n This year, I\u2019m fortunate and grateful to be able to say my Valentine\u2019s Day was full of love. Some examples of this love are being handed a flower by a stranger in the Diag and being told it was a random act of kindness, receiving a box of chocolates in the mail from my mom, and coming back from my classes to a bouquet of flowers and heartfelt card in front of my door, courtesy of the friend who I had the conversation about \u201cbeing alone\u201d with.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe darkness just lets us see who we are\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Without knowing what feeling lonely is like, I might forget to appreciate all of the people who remind me I am not alone. I\u2019m lucky to have been reminded of this so many times on Valentine\u2019s Day, but not being alone comes in more forms than being given gifts. Not being alone – love – means feeling like I can talk to my friends and trust that they\u2019re looking out for me. It means the selfles<\/span>s acts we do for each other every day that go unnoticed yet are alwaysreciprocated. This Valentine\u2019s Day, I was beautifully reminded that I have the privilege of being able to recognize that, for me, \u201cbeing alone\u201d is a mindset. The second I decide that I am not alone, I suddenly see the countless ways that I am loved.<\/p>\n