My experience with Valentine’s Day is different than everyone else since honestly, I had no long-term relationships (beyond a month) before I met my wife. Thus everything short of grade school paper Valentine’s cards that we all put in other kids boxes doesn’t exist for me. Plus because my wife’s birthday is only a couple days before Valentine’s and I’ve always in some form planned what I was doing based on both of them.
Let us start with going through the stages of relationships as they concern this holiday.
Valentine’s Day back when you were in elementary school was going to Wal-mart and buying a box of valentines of your favorite super-hero, doll, or TV personality, and signing them all, maybe taping a candy to the card and dropping one in all your school mates boxes. Pretty basic stuff. I honestly don’t remember it that much but have experienced it through each of our children doing such in the last 10-12 years.
Valentine’s Day for someone who is dating someone in their teens or twenties I can see is a confusing time especially if the relationship is only a couple weeks or a month or so old. If you take it too seriously like I did for the first two Valentine’s with my wife you could cause trouble with the relationship. Thankfully, in my case, by the time the first such holiday came around, we were a pretty serious couple in our relationship (6 months in). By the time the 2nd one came around we were engaged and six months from being married. At that point, and
Thankfully, in my case, by the time the first such holiday came around, we were a pretty serious couple in our relationship (6 months in). By the time the 2nd one came around we were engaged and six months from being married. At that point, and through our first years of marriage it was me bringing chocolate and/or flowers to her work and possibly a dinner out.
I, being the romantic I am and being very outgoing would always want to deliver it personally to her at work and embarrass her (which I think she secretly loved).
So, further into our married relationship, it’s attention did slide out of Valentine’s and more to tying it in with her birthday. Because of her birthday being before, I would sometimes do something for her based on the birthday day, but use Valentine’s stuff to accomplish it. She’s a big fan of greeting/occasional cards, so getting an actual Hallmark card or something with some heavy thought into it was important. I could never just buy “a” card.
Overall, I feel that you need to have a relationship that has some romance in it to enjoy Valentine’s Day. If you are in a relationship and your partner is such or you are such, enjoy it and make something out of it. Otherwise, for the unattached, it’s actually a more depressing day than most because you see all of that happening around you.
It’s amazing how a holiday such as this one, or Christmas or Thanksgiving, can have such a wide variety of emotions tied around it. If you are in to them they are big for you, if you aren’t or something hits you weird that day, it can be so depressing. It’s no wonder that Thanksgiving is often one of the busiest days at bars, and I wouldn’t be surprised that Valentine’s Day ranks up there as well.
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