I used to be a Valentine’s Day hater. The holiday felt so fake — a scam curated by Hallmark to sell cards and streams of their terrible romantic comedies. I, a self-proclaimed contrarian in high school, was going to have nothing to do with that. My love was going to be real. In college, I maintain my original position: Big Flower and Big Chocolate created Valentine’s Day, but it’s also a day when love is abundantly displayed. It’s become an opportunity to see that right in front of me.

Valentine’s Day is much more than getting gifts from your partner or participating in a Galentine’s party (though I encourage both). It’s a reminder that there is so much love around you every day. Love isn’t just romantic, but we all know this. You can see it, though, in so much more than your own friendships and relationships.

Love is any act of kindness at all. It’s two friends eating lunch, laughing over an inside joke. It’s seeing a bird make a nest in the broken brick wall of a residence hall. It’s someone searching a building to throw their plastic bottle in a recycling bin. It’s the display of care for anything, and it’s everywhere.

In the wake of so much fear — from Trump’s federal policies to club budget slashes — we need something to keep us going. We need a reason to keep fighting. You have things you care about, whether it’s preventing fascism or maintaining your friendships, and it can be hard to keep pushing for those things, especially when the potential consequences of failing could be detrimental.

I’m telling you, though, that the reason to keep going is right in front of you. You can still see it even if you feel like you don’t have close friends or aren’t connected with your family. People still open the door for others when they don’t have to and pick up trash around campus. You may not have that love for a special someone this Valentine’s Day, but I promise that if you look for it, you’ll see it.

I don’t want to get too “Love, Actually” on you, but I feel like I have to emphasize that love, actually, is all around. Today is the perfect day to see it, and that’s why I love Valentine’s Day. It reminds us that love is everywhere, every day, in tiny little expressions. I encourage you to notice them.

As an example for you on the rest of this Hallmark holiday, I’ve taken note of a few expressions of love I’ve seen on the day of writing this.

Here are my favorites:
– The Trinicat Fauna approaching a student and rubbing up against their legs.
– Two women in the Coates Library Starbucks sharing a drink.
– My suitemate yelling across campus at her little that she loves her and her little returning the favor.
– My brother driving me to the Mabee Market at midnight so that I could get a snack.
– The Richardson Communication Center desk worker walking around Laurie Auditorium with me to show me where the offices were (as a junior, I know).
– The news editor calling her mother in the newsroom.
– A pair of roommates I know studying together in the corner of the library.
– My friend urging me to read a book series that she adores.
– Not one, but two birthday posts for users’ friends on Instagram.
– A woman helping her peer work on an assignment for her class.

The love goes on, and on and on. You just have to look for it.