Heart shaped chocolates and dozens of roses occupying grocery stores can only mean one thing: Valentine’s Day has arrived. More and more people, however, are finding ways to participate in this holiday without the need for a significant other. Communications junior Megan Horan, strings senior Maria Fernandez, and digital media freshman Isabel Lerman were all able to plan activities that didn’t include the stereotypical extravagant day with a significant other or sitting on the couch eating junk food in an isolated state of emotional despair.

The Fan Fiction Exchange

While fan fiction can usually be found on websites with subjects ranging from fan fantasies to One Direction, Horan organized an exchange with her friends for the second year that took place during lunch on Feb. 12. She and her friends wrote stories about each other, incorporating their favorite video games or television shows.

“We were all super big fan fiction writers in middle school and during our freshman year, but we don’t really have much time anymore,” Horan said. “That’s why we wanted to do this.”

Set up like a Secret Santa gift exchange, Horan created slips of paper listing the rules of the exchange and each participant wrote their top three topics for fan fiction. Horan then used a randomizer to assign each person to whom they would be writing their fan fiction for. The participants included communications juniors Uma Raja, Samantha Marshall, Kayla Kirschenbaum, Grace Sullivan, Stella Vasilopoulos, Brianna Steidle, strings junior Emily Winters, theatre junior Hannah Thompson, and band junior Wyatt Mischler.

“The main rule is that it has to have some romance and we sometimes have people write themselves with a character they want to be with,” Horan said. “There are a lot of inside jokes, humor, and good writing because a lot of our friends are Scholastic award winners.”

After the exchange was over and each participant attempted to figure out the writer behind each fan fiction, the celebration continued the following day at Horan’s house, combined with a post-Battle of the Books party. The party also gave the participants a chance to continue discussing the fan fictions they had so diligently worked on.

“I got [Raja for the exchange],” Horan said. “I am a Gemini and she says that they are two-faced. [Raja] is married to a character from a videogame we like and she gives birth to a child who is a Gemini. An army of Gemini children is trying to take over the world and she has to use memes to stop the army.”

Family Camping Trip

Although camping on Valentine’s Day usually brings images of a couple on a romantic getaway looking up at the stars, Fernandez included her entire family on her camping excursion to Lion Country Safari this holiday weekend.

“We’ve done it before with friends and we loved it, so we all decided that it would be a good time to go again,” Fernandez said.

In addition to the typical camping activities of constructing tents and making s’mores, Fernandez and 15 members of her family played corn hole and looked at the stars through a telescope. While Fernandez went camping previously for the Valentine’s Day holiday two years ago, family trips are not usually a regular occurrence for her on this romance-themed day.

“[I usually] sit at home eating chicken nuggets, drinking milkshakes, and crying over ‘10 Things I Hate About You,’” Fernandez said.

Despite Fernandez’s previous participation in the single life of Valentine’s Day, the camping trip has brought her a different perspective on the holiday’s meaning.

“I think Valentine’s Day is more so a day to celebrate love in general- friend love, sibling love, parent love, all kinds of non-restricted to romantic love,” Fernandez said. “It’s nice. It’s a great day to show the ones you appreciate that you appreciate them.”

Galentine’s Day

Anyone who is a fan of the television show “Parks and Recreation” knows that Feb. 13, the day before Valentine’s Day, is reserved for the celebration of “gal pals,” deemed by Leslie Knope as “Galentine’s Day.” With the help of dance freshman Kaiya Black, Lerman organized her own real-life “Galentine’s Day” celebration.

“Some of my friends and I watch Parks and Recreation and really liked the idea of Galentine’s Day that they had on the show, so we decided to do it ourselves,” Lerman said.

Strings freshmen Sahana Shravan and Elizabeth Crane, dance freshmen Barbara Monteiro and Tai Williams, communications freshman Danelle Eugene, visual freshman Alex Strelitz, and digital media freshman Natalie Rodriguez all came to Lerman’s house for a night filled with board games, movies, and heart shaped pizza and waffles.

“My favorite part of the party was getting the chance to hang out with my friends,” Lerman said. “We all have busy schedules so it was special for everyone to be able to get together on the weekend.”