Promise Day is the February 11 pit stop in the emotionally exhausting rollercoaster that is Valentine’s Week. It sits awkwardly between Teddy Day and Hug Day. But this day isn’t about plushies or awkward workplace side-hugs, it’s about commitment.
Millennials who have given up on real love and invested in freezing their eggs, and Gen Zers drowning in the deep end of Tinder’s endless left swipes, are equally confused about commitment.
The Millennial Meltdown
Millennials were raised on a steady diet of romantic comedies and false hope. They grew up watching Kajol fall in love with Shah Rukh Khan on a trip, believing that true love would involve grand gestures and running through train stations. Instead, they got breadcrumbing, gaslighting, and 3 am booty calls. So it’s no wonder that, by the time Promise Day rolls around, the most commitment they’re willing to make is a long-term relationship with their therapist. “I have given up on dating. Women my age are already married and the others are too immature for me to be in a serious relationship with,” says 34-year-old techie Jathin Chacko, who travels by day and works remotely for an MNC by night.
For this lot born in the 80s and 90s, Promise Day is less about “forever and always” and more about, “I promise to not check your Insta stories.”
Gen Z And The Situationship Circus
Let’s talk about Gen Z. These guys don’t even pretend to believe in happily-ever-after anymore. They’ve watched the millennials suffer through failed engagements and overpriced weddings, and they’ve said, “No thanks, we’ll take the situationships instead.”
“There was a time, when a promise meant something. It was sacred. It was unbreakable. But now? We live in a time of ghosting, soft-launch relationships. People text 'I’m not looking for anything serious' before they even say hello on dating apps,” says Soumya Pai, a 25-year-old lawyer from Kolkata.
If millennials were served the fairy tale dream, Gen Z was handed a terms-and-conditions agreement for dating that they didn’t read before clicking ‘accept.’ Their idea of Promise Day is as non-committal as their relationships.
So, in the spirit of keeping things chill, here are some low-risk lines for Promise Day 2025 that won’t induce panic attacks:
- “I promise to share my Netflix password until they start charging for extra users.”
- “I promise to react to your memes with at least an ‘lol’ even if I didn’t actually laugh.”
- “I promise to listen to your 15-minute voice note, but I will definitely play it at 2x speed.”
- “I promise not to post your texts on my close friends list... unless they’re REALLY funny.”
- “I promise to pretend I didn’t see you on Hinge if we match and it gets awkward.”
How Should We Really Celebrate Promise Day?
Given that traditional promises of love, loyalty, and foreverness make most people break into hives, maybe it’s time to rebrand this holiday. Instead of making vows we know we won’t keep, let’s make manageable, non-traumatizing micro-commitments.
You could celebrate Promise Day by:
- Promising to not ghost people (unless they deserve it).
- Making a pact to stop online- stalking your ex’s new partner.
- Swearing to go on a date without immediately planning your escape route.
- Committing to texting back within a reasonable time frame.
At the end of the day, Promise Day isn’t about grand romantic declarations anymore. It’s about setting the bar just low enough that we can actually clear it.
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