Love is in the air, but for some, that will have to be self love. You might feel sad, distraught or downright heartbroken that you are spending Valentine’s Day all alone. But fear not for the Student Life Editorial Board is here to save the day! We may not be able to play big spoon for you (there’s a lot of us, it just wouldn’t work space-wise) but we are here with tips and tricks to help you through your soul-crushing loneliness without shedding too many tears. So buckle up, grab your tissues (and maybe your lotion) and remember we are all alone in the end anyway.

Soak your sorrow in sweets

Eagerly await going to CVS on February 15 to buy all of the discounted heart-shaped chocolate. Your Valentines might not have been very sweet, but that doesn’t mean the day after can’t be. Wallow in your lonesomeness by overloading your system with delicious, romantic sweets. Nothing will soothe your soul and fill that hole in your heart faster than shoveling boxes of half-off candy into your shopping cart. Sugar will make you feel loved.

— Tyler Sabloff, Senior Forum Editor

Watch rom-coms with all your other single friends

Get all of your other boo-less friends together (you and I both know that there must be more than one) for a night of romantic comedies where you laugh at the stunning ineptitude of every last rom-com protagonist ever for being wholly unable to communicate true feelings. Honestly, why can’t they just tell each other they love each other already?!? There are a lot of these rom-coms out there, so why wait until Valentine’s Day? You might as well start watching now.

— Matthew Friedman, Senior Sports Editor

Stick it to the man

Go on with your business. Don’t let “them” bully you into thinking you need to be loved on Valentine’s day. It’s just another weekend you’re spending alone. You’re used to that by now! The soulless hacks at Big Valentine are using your anxiety to sell chocolate and terrible romance movies. Wait until February 15 to be lonely on your own terms!

— Dorian Debose, Senior Sports Editor

Redefine what love means to you

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be anything special. Ultimately, it’s a celebration of love, but that love doesn’t have to be romantic. This year, use the holiday to love yourself and your friends. Do what’s fun for you, whether that means staying in and catching up on that TV show you just haven’t had the time to binge or getting a couple friends together and going to dinner. And then, of course, take advantage of the post-Valentine’s sales.

— Isabella Neubauer, Senior Cadenza Editor and Copy Chief

Get spooky

Don’t have a boo? Have a boo! You know, like the scary kind. With the ghosts. And the pumpkins. It’s honestly a shame that Halloween only comes once a year, so why not give it another go in February? It’ll basically feel like spooky season all over again. Get your friends together, put on wild costumes and eat too much candy. Just be prepared for that candy to come in a heart shaped box.

— Jaden Satenstein, Senior Scene Editor

Treat yourself

Treat yo’self! Buy yourself a nice outfit, order one of those heart-shaped pizzas, find a new show on Netflix and enjoy your you-time. Been eyeing that new mud mask? Buy it! Obsessed with that movie trailer? Go see it! With the everyday chaos of school, sometimes the self-love gets lost beneath papers and deadlines, so use this day as a sort of catch-up on all the things you want to do but never can.

— Kya Vaughn, Senior Forum Editor

Make time for a friend

Even if it’s not a romantic date, investing time and energy to nurture your other important relationships is important. Set aside some time to catch up with an old friend over coffee or call someone just to let them know you’re thinking about them. Little efforts like this can go a long way to warm someone’s day, and what better way to celebrate a day for love than doing something meaningful like this.

-Emma Baker, Editor-in-Chief

Enjoy being single

Honestly being single for Valentine’s day is the best gift you could give yourself, because this means that you can spend the entire day doing anything and everything YOU want without having to worry about stepping on someone else’s plans. So go out for brunch: You can pretend you’re dating your best friend and bring them along—if you’re feeling generous, treat them to a meal! Binge some Netflix: You can always set the mood with a few candles and twinkle lights. Make yourself a nice dinner: We all know that we never have enough time for this during the week, but since V-Day falls on a Friday, you can relax and learn to cook for one. Give yourself a facial, read that book you’ve been meaning to get to and by God, don’t spend all of your time on social media comparing your night to everyone else’s—enjoy being alone.

— Danielle Drake-Flam, Managing Editor

Celebrate Hedgehog Day

Valentine’s Day was made up by love companies to sell more love. Don’t let yourself feel sad because on one arbitrary day you’re alone. Don’t let the excessive pinkness of February 14 get you down. Instead, celebrate Hedgehog Day. It’s like Groundhog Day, but instead of a groundhog looking at its shadow to tell you whether or not there will be two more weeks of winter, you throw a handful of cotton balls onto a hedgehog and however many stick to the hedgehog corresponds to how many more weeks that bag of carrots in your fridge will stay good. After you’re done, get a nice big tub of hummus and eat it with those carrots before it’s too late.

—Josh Zucker, Associate Editor

Swipe away the day

If you’re alone for Valentine’s Day and you’re looking for a boo, you can go on Tinder, or Bumble or Hinge or try out that new thing—Facebook Dating. Or not! Maybe instead of finding someone to take on a date, you can take yourself! Swipe right on yourself, or swipe right on a cutie—I can’t tell you what to do. Or! You could make your friends a dating profile and swipe for them. If you can’t help yourself, help someone else!

—Sabrina Spence, Senior Cadenza Editor

Buy yourself (and maybe someone else?) a heart-shaped pizza

Love: emotional, messy, confusing, will inevitably end. Pizza: simple, enjoyable, will inevitably end but in a good way. The only cure for a broken heart this Valentine’s Day is a whole heart-shaped pizza from Papa John’s. Or, if you’ve got a person you’re romantically interested in, share your heart-shaped pizza with them and hope they get the gist! To be honest, pizza’s the solution for any scenario. You’re welcome.

— Jordan Coley, Copy Chief

Alone time

Buy a vibrator. Buy a fleshlight, or buy whatever works for you. Grab some Gatorade, you’re going to need the electrolytes. Treat yourself all day long. Then take a nap and treat yourself all night long too. Just don’t forget to disconnect from WUSTL 2.0 before you start searching, there are some things the IT people would rather not see.

— Lauren Alley, Managing Editor

For some more hot content, make sure to check out Student Life’s annual sex issue, Student Love. Grab a copy to get more tips and tricks and to see how much ~loving~ the campus is getting. Warning: once you see where on campus people are getting their love, you might want to invest in some hand sanitizer and some Clorox wipes. Student Love will be hitting stands on February 10th.