Yes, the beloved holiday of love, laughs, couples and gooey, lovey, dovey, mushy crap all girls adore and all guys sweat over. Mmm. Can't you feel it in the air?!
Sorry, I am not a festive person and definitely not into the whole "dating", "boyfriend", "commitment" kinda think at the current moment. I could care less.
But let us begin with the history of this infamous holiday. Who is St. Valentine and why do we waste our time celebrating?:
Valentine's day has history in Christian and Roman traditions. "Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome", and the emperor of the country believed single men made better solider, rather than married or non-single men. Less baggage. He later "outlawed marriage for young men". Valentine believed this was just WRONG to deny young couples the right to marry just because you want a strong army with no baggage at home. He was like "Oh hex naw" (he's a priest! no cussing) and continued to marry these young fellas and their damsels, secretly of course. Of course, some big mouth told King Claudius and "ordered that he be put to death." "While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl". Before being killed for NO reason, he allegedly wrote a letter this pretty lil gal and signed it "'From your Valentine.'" Awww! And the tradition has been going on around the time of his death in 270 A.D. And no, A.D. does not mean "after death". It is "anno domini", which is Latin for "The year of our Lord". You learned some NEW junk today!!
Yeah. That's pretty much the history in a bullet shell. You can read the whole thing here & this is my source of information. Don't wanna plagiarize.
Now, as cute of a story this is, I still think the holiday is kinda... not for me. I don't see why a guy who finds me attractive, nice to be with or enjoyable (well... the first one. No guy who looks at me goes past that) will wait one day out of the WHOLE year just to say, "Hey! I like you." or "Yo! I think you are special." What about the other 364 (and 365 in leap years) days of the year? You forgot about them? I don't know. I've never enjoyed the holiday.
Even back in elementary school when we had those little parties & everyone put candy in their little bags by their desks. Yeah. I gave all my candy to my family because it's primarily chocolate anyway. =/ I was awkward, mute and nerdy. I wasn't significant.
Middle school came along when you actually told your crush you liked them. I was the nerdy, black cheerleader with glasses & braces. Tiny and still awkward, I saw it as a holiday for the hot, fellow popular cheerleaders who everyone liked. Not for the only black chick on the squad.
High school was the first time I received a Valentine's Day gift from a male subject. Yeah, turns out he was an uncreative, jerk face. Him and his friends all went to Walmart the night before and bought their crushes the same thing. So I walked around school with the same flower & bear as about 15-25 other girls. Mmm. Smell the love. Yeah... I went home and partially decapitated the bear when I realized how dumb he was.
Years after that, my friends and I sent each other roses. I got one from an admirer. That's about it.
I've never been on a "Real Valentine's Date". Got the "royal treatment", or felt any more "admired" on this "special day". I view it the same way I view September 17th. I don't see why it is such a big deal.
I guess I'm just not the "romantic type" to feel such need to express my feelings (ever) toward anyone except my daughter. I'm hypothesizing my negative outlook on this "love" holiday dates back to my childhood, which started my disliking and mistrust toward the male species approaching me.... but that's a whole different blog...
Anyway! How do you feel about Valentine's Day? Like it? Love it? Love to hate it? Hate to love it? Just don't care?