Valentines Day.
Not a Fan.
OK, OK, I am an adult, and have, for the most part, moved on from the past and laid my childhood trauma to rest.
But there’s one thing I simply have never been able to get over, and that is the horror that is St. Valentines Day.
I think that maybe up to the 3rd grade or so, when everyone was REQUIRED to bring in stupid little cards and candy for EVERYONE else in the class, well, it wasn’t so bad as all that. One more faux holiday and an excuse to eat (usually bad) candy.
But with age comes freedom from teacher mandated fairness, and from there on out, Valentines day was always just a way for the cool, pretty, popular kids to stick it to the new, the uncool, the less pretty, the fat, etc. etc. kids.
As a kid who was a) smart b) fat c) in a new school every two or three years… I’ll let you imagine how many Valentines day cards I every got.
Oh, that’s right, none.
High School. It’s Valentines Day… several school clubs would “fundraise” by selling balloons, flowers, candy, etc. and delivering them in home room for kids to carry around the rest of the day.
The pretty cheerleaders could barely manage to carry around their load of swag the rest of the day… but you better believe they did… wouldn’t want anyone to think they didn’t have those dozens of admirers.
Did I ever once have a balloon to carry around on Valentines day? Yeh, no.
Valentines Day… Specially made for humiliation and spite! Yay Cupid!
When I was first dating the SB, our first Valentines day, I bought a lovely card and a present, etc. etc. I thought it would be awesome to be dating someone on Valentines day. But really? I wasn’t buying that stuff as an expression of “love” or “romance”… they were really just a way to stick it to Valentines day and everything it stands for.
I’m not a “romantic” – I’m not a sappy card person… those things are not the way I show love and affection. For me, participating in Valentines day is not only a dredger of bad memories, it’s also completely inauthentic to the person I am.
So I choose to eschew all things Valentines. I boycott all heart shaped boxes of chocolates. I do not want any shiny jewels. I will not be going out for any fancy dinners. I will not be participating in the consumer festival that the commercials tell us are required of us lest our significant others feel that we have not spent sufficiently to prove our love.
I’m not passionate enough about most things to go to all the trouble of avoiding them to this degree … what can I say – Valentines Day is made for passion!
