So I'm a 22 year old, single college guy, who is extremely busy with school and work. I figured that one way or another my current lifestyle is similar to tons of people right now. Either in your 20's, going to college or working full-time (possibly both), extremely busy, and single. I also know that way too many people with similar lifestyles get down in the dumps when Valentines Day rolls around. So I've decided to share with all you similar people out there some tips I use to make sure I still have a good V-day...

1. Work/Study
-Use the fact that your single as a benefit. You're off the hook. You're not obligated to spend the day with anyone, do anything special, or spend any extra money. You might as well take this time to pickup hours at work that someone else took off because of the pseudo holiday.

If you're in school still, go to the library and study. It should be a little less packed and definitely not as loud as a normal day. Get away from all the corny/cheesy V-day stuff around you and hide out in the library to catch up on work or get ahead on the next lesson.

2. Have a parent of the opposite sex that's single? Take them out. My Mom is a single parent and she would love nothing more than for her son to take her out on a Mother/Son date. They love it. If you're a girl...believe me, Dad's love spending one-on-one time with Daddy's little princess. This is a great way to avoid being alone. Plus, parents always seem to make you feel better and look at the world through an optimistic eye. Spending the day with them is like having chicken soup when you're sick.

3. Get all your friends who are single together and go do something. Regardless if it's just your friends of the same sex or if it's a group of single guy and girls. Go do something fun. Grab a nice dinner with all of you and shoot the shit. Maybe catch a movie or do something you normally don't do when you hang out.... like go play laser tag. Something random like laser tag with a bunch of older people tends to be a lot more fun than you would think.

4. Hang out with one of your close friends of the opposite sex. Take your best friend who is a girl (if your a guy) or vise versa (a guy friend if you're a girl) out to dinner and a movie. Nothing about it is romantic and clearly you both know that because you're already best friends. It's a solid way to catch up and a good way to still enjoy the holiday with someone.

There's definitely more things you can do but those 4 always work for me. The most important thing is to avoid having some shitty mindset all day long. Hallmark, chocolate companies, and flower companies clearly want you to think it's crucial to find the love of your life before February 14th rolls around but lets be honest...they just want to make a buck.

The last thing you want to do is go to some bar by yourself, get drunk, and either end up leaving with someone you'll regret about the next day...or worse, leave by yourself only to feel even more shitty in the morning. If you're bummed out about being alone then don't stay home and sulk while you flip through the channels as they play titanic, the notebook, and any other too good to be true love story. Get off your ass and go find that fucking dog...oh wait, that's a line from Billy Madison...I meant, get off your ass and go do something fun or productive. Don't sit around in a pile of your own salt!