Valentine’s Day, although I am fully aware is a “made-up” holiday is one of my most favorites!  Single or not, I love it!  I have friends who celebrate it as “Hate Day” and “Single Day” and “Anti-Valentine’s Day” but I have never been one to join in on any of the negative that people feel during this particular holiday.  I can honestly say that yes, I have been in a relationship on every Valentine’s Day probably since I was 16 (or maybe even younger), but that is not why I love the holiday so much. 

My love for Valentine’s Day started out in elementary school. I remember every year spending the week leading up to Valentine’s Day making awesome Valentine mailboxes, classroom decorations and special valentine gifts for my parents.  Then usually the weekend before Valentine’s Day my mom would take me to the grocery store and we would buy Valentine cards for me to fill out for each classmate, carefully picking each card to match the person meant for it.  Then once the day finally arrived, my class would have a huge Valentine party where we would start off by passing out our Valentine’s for each classmate in their individual handmade mailbox. By the time we got back to our own desk it was littered with Valentines, including special Valentines from our parents that they had given to our teacher to give us.  Opening up each individual card, wondering what type of candy it came with or who sent it and what it said, if it had a secret meaning, or was it from a crush, etc. was just so exciting for me.  After receiving all those Valentines where boys would often leave me cute little messages we would have yummy cupcakes, cookies and other candy.  We would sometimes even get to watch a movie.  I would always dress in red or pink including a matching bow or hair tie.

Once I got into junior high Valentine’s Day was slightly different.  My friends and I still passed out cards in the hallway, but even better than that we had the “Valentine’s Day Dance”.  I remember getting asked by this boy that I had a huge crush on, but he was a foot shorter than me, so my friends would tease us about it.  All my girlfriends and I would get together before the dance, dress us, put on some makeup (which we only wore at dances) and head to the dance together gossiping about who we wanted to ask us to dance, who we would refuse to dance with and what songs we so badly wanted to dance to.  The question that was on all our minds was – would we get kissed.  We all took bets on who we thought would kiss who and once we arrived at the dance took group pictures. Ah… to be in love at such a young age is crazy.  You do anything for love and when it is taken away from you, your life is over.

These last few Valentine’s my boyfriend has been away training, so I have made it fun by making a girls day of it.  Usually we go out to either brunch or dinner and see a movie, my girlfriends will still gossip on who they like, how their relationships have been and vent about their ex’s. To me Valentine’s Day is not all about being in a relationship, but more about being thankful for love.