Written by Nicole Sullenger
Some people thrive on holidays like Valentine’s Day. I, for one, do not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hater.I am, however, a little weary of guys’ abilities to pick out gifts. For as long as I can remember, Valentine’s Day has been a holiday where the boys try too hard and the girls remain unimpressed. Boys feel the need to suddenly become complex and confusing, all in an attempt to display their emotions. This bad habit begins at a painfully early age and just gets worse and worse each year as they get older. In an effort to stop this behavior, I thought it might be appropriate to share a story or two that shows boys exactly what they shouldn’t do.Let’s talk elementary school, fourth grade specifically. You know everyone had the all-day parties where the class played games, ate food and finally — when the moment was right — everyone passed out their valentines to each other. As I began to open one of my valentines from a boy in my class, I saw circles of different colors lining the page. Now within those circles were long, painfully misspelled definitions of each color and how they represented my life. One color was my smile, another was my smartness, the next one was my kindness, and the list went on and on. Now I understood he put some thought into it, but was I impressed? No. Was I confused? Very. Why each of those colors meant what they did, I really don’t know. What I do know is he could have saved us both a lot of time and confusion by just writing a quick, cheesy love note. That would have made my rejection note a lot easier to write.Let’s now just skip ahead to senior year of high school. Valentine’s Day rolled around, and I was feeling pretty good for once. I had already been on a few dates with a guy, so I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be left hanging.As predicted, after first hour there he was, standing there looking good with a pretty red rose for me. I, of course, was extremely happy about this. That is until I soon learned I was not the only girl he had given a rose to. There were three of us, all with different roses, but from the same guy … sketchy. If we were going to rate my happiness, it quickly turned from a pretty solid seven to a confused three. To make a long story short, I worried and stressed all day only to learn that different colored flowers mean different kinds of relationships — what gives. One girl got the yellow “friendship” rose, the other got the light pink “happiness and fun” rose, while I walked away with the red rose of “love.”At the end of the day I guess all my worries were for nothing, but I pose this question: Would it have been too difficult to only give one girl a rose on Valentine’s Day? Was it really necessary to choose Feb. 14 as the day to proclaim all your feelings of friendship? No. No, that was not necessary at all. In fact, it was just plain stupid. Stupid and confusing.Along with the useless note and confusing rose, I’ve gotten ugly porcelain figures and, my personal favorite, an awkward song written about me sung by a boy who just cannot sing. Valentine’s Day brings out the worst in judgment calls.I say all that to say this: Although it is highly entertaining, I think we’d all be better off if we put the disgustingly cheesy ideas aside and just gave something simple and thoughtful.There aren’t many girls who wouldn’t appreciate a cute card, a box of chocolates and a nice dinner out somewhere. And if you’re going to give a girl a rose, please pretty please, just give one girl a rose.
