Valentine’s Day is a beautiful time when couples empty out their wallets without hesitation in order to make their partner happy with gifts or dinner.

As a single 21-year-old, Valentine’s Day is great for me for several reasons.

I’m fortunate to receive gifts, such as Kuppa Joy gift cards and sports merchandise, and “Happy Valentine’s Day” texts from family members. Most importantly, I don’t spend money on gifts, so I get to keep my money up.

According to Bankrate, people spent an average of $100.30 on their significant other in 2023. The second highest was family members at $30.51.

Fresno State student Emilio Carrasco celebrated his Valentine’s Day dinner with his girlfriend the day prior at Five. On Valentine’s Day, Carrasco and his girlfriend went to the movies, gave each other gifts and finished the day getting Valentine-themed Crumbl cookies.

Over the two days of celebrating, Carrasco spent an estimated $160.

Another Fresno State student, Karyna Ocampo, isn’t currently in a relationship and said she enjoyed spending the day hanging out with her friend.

“Why not spend [Valentine’s Day] with friends who actually care about you,” Ocampo told The Collegian.

Ocampo and her friend spent the day taking pictures and making homemade pizzas and cookies.

In total, Ocampo spent around $50 on the ingredients to make the pizzas and cookies.

Even though Carrasco and Ocampo celebrated in different ways, the two both enjoyed the celebration.

“As I’ve gotten older, I see Valentine’s Day as a day of love with the people you love, not only a significant other,” Ocampo said.

Carrasco shared similar sentiments.

“[Valentine’s Day] reminds everyone to make sure their loved ones know they’re appreciated,” Carrasco said.

While it may be great to be in a relationship and create memories with someone while I’m still young, I’m graduating in the spring and don’t want to commit to a long-term relationship while I’m unsure of my future. (I mean it and not saying that as an excuse for not having a girlfriend.)

I don’t plan on being single forever and eventually want to start a family to raise little Dylans, but right now, I feel complete with my life. I have a loving family and a great group of friends that made my Valentine’s Day memorable.

Valentine’s Day started off like any other Wednesday. I woke up at 8:17 a.m. and made myself a cup of coffee with two spoonfuls of sugar paired with vanilla creamer. The only thing that was different were the “Happy Valentine’s Day” texts from my family members and friend group chat that I woke up to, which was comforting.

On most Wednesdays, I am not on campus since I don’t have class. However, this Wednesday morning, I recorded an episode of The Collegian Cooldown podcast in the library.

After recording the podcast, I stayed on campus until about 2 p.m. to catch up on assignments from my classes and edit stories for The Collegian.

Following my longer-than-expected stay on campus, I went home and made myself an orange chicken bowl from Trader Joe’s for a late lunch. After my delicious lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

At 4 p.m., I turned on my TV to watch my favorite hockey team, the San Jose Sharks. Even though they lost to the Winnipeg Jets, it was still a fun game to watch since it was their first game back in two weeks due to the All-Star break. After the Sharks game, I made my way over to the Save Mart Center to watch the Fresno State men’s basketball game against UNLV with a few friends.

The game was very enjoyable, as it came down to the last shot. Unfortunately, Fresno State lost.

As I was about to head home around 11 p.m., I saw a text from my friends asking if I wanted to meet them at In-N-Out.

Once I arrived at In-N-Out, I got my usual order: a number three with no onion, fries and a strawberry shake.

We stayed inside the restaurant for about 45 minutes, then made our way outside. Even though it was chilly and raining, we stayed outside until about 1:30 a.m., where we talked about interesting stuff, including what our first impressions of each other were. I didn’t get back home until about 2 a.m.

Once I got home, I watched the recording of the Golden State Warriors game that I missed while I was at the Fresno State basketball game. It wasn’t until about 3:45 a.m. that I finally went to bed.

It may not be the stereotypical day that comes to mind when people think of Valentine’s Day, but I’m glad it turned out the way that it did.