Highly Overrated Grossness, aka V-Day
Feb. 16th, 2001 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteYes, you either love it or you hate it. It's Valentine's Day. Unlike Mother's Day, it wasn't created by Hallmark, and they don't over-publicize it quite as much as chocolate companies or sleazy "Hard Copy" style shows do. There are two distant origins: one is that it falls around the same time as a Pagan fertility festival. Erm, not quite. Imbolc, the name of the festival, falls on February 1st. Not 14th. Oops. Okay, so there's the OTHER one that we all know, right? During some fantastic war, Caesar prevented all his soldiers from marrying, as he thought that would prevent them from fighting well or some other such weirdness. So a priest by the name of Valentine married the couples in secret. However, Caesar found out and killed the man, forever making the man a martyr of love and a Saint in his name.
Okay, so that's what we know. All well and good, but how did card and chocolate-giving get started? Why isn't some ritualistic day to get married? But no, people get married in JUNE, not in February. While I have nothing against people celebrating their love, some people overdo it. I saw on one particular tv show about how to give the perfect gift. How some guys were inept with the whole Valentine's scene, and others were suaver than soap. While 61% of guys may want flowers from their girls (*cough* yeah right!), only 40% get them, and girls always get the same old: balloons, chocolate, candy of any red, fruity sort, roses, teddy bears. It's all about pink, red, cute, and usually either shiny or fuzzy. Or, in the case of older people, big, gold, and expensive-looking.
Maybe I hate it so much because I used to go through so much trouble making (from scratch) V-day cards, personalizing them and all, and then not getting a single one even close to what I had done back, not even from my friends. Of the people whose few scattered Valentines I still have, they scrawled their name on back so messily that I can barely make it out. Nothing personal at all. So, in 5th grade, I pretty much stopped doing the Valentine thing. Last year, I guy who I barely knew gave me some chocolates with a scrap of paper saying he liked my personality. I was flattered beyond belief, but I was drooling after a senior. I was blind to what was in front of me, and could have made a closer friend as opposed to ignoring it. Of course, I thanked him graciously on a cute pink note, and we're in a class together again. Part of me wonders if he still likes me.
But I just refuse to acknowledge that I am alone yet again one year, and V-day just makes me remember that even more painfully. All my friends are paired off, guys who are usually the obnoxious geeks now have girlfriends, and even the not-so-desperate, semi-guy-hating ones are getting Love Pops and teddy bears from one person or another. Perhaps it's that cycle of destruction deal again, with me segregating myself and never giving anyone the chance to love me. Or maybe I am just unloved.
I wore all black yesterday, and I'm proud of it.
Okay, so that's what we know. All well and good, but how did card and chocolate-giving get started? Why isn't some ritualistic day to get married? But no, people get married in JUNE, not in February. While I have nothing against people celebrating their love, some people overdo it. I saw on one particular tv show about how to give the perfect gift. How some guys were inept with the whole Valentine's scene, and others were suaver than soap. While 61% of guys may want flowers from their girls (*cough* yeah right!), only 40% get them, and girls always get the same old: balloons, chocolate, candy of any red, fruity sort, roses, teddy bears. It's all about pink, red, cute, and usually either shiny or fuzzy. Or, in the case of older people, big, gold, and expensive-looking.
Maybe I hate it so much because I used to go through so much trouble making (from scratch) V-day cards, personalizing them and all, and then not getting a single one even close to what I had done back, not even from my friends. Of the people whose few scattered Valentines I still have, they scrawled their name on back so messily that I can barely make it out. Nothing personal at all. So, in 5th grade, I pretty much stopped doing the Valentine thing. Last year, I guy who I barely knew gave me some chocolates with a scrap of paper saying he liked my personality. I was flattered beyond belief, but I was drooling after a senior. I was blind to what was in front of me, and could have made a closer friend as opposed to ignoring it. Of course, I thanked him graciously on a cute pink note, and we're in a class together again. Part of me wonders if he still likes me.
But I just refuse to acknowledge that I am alone yet again one year, and V-day just makes me remember that even more painfully. All my friends are paired off, guys who are usually the obnoxious geeks now have girlfriends, and even the not-so-desperate, semi-guy-hating ones are getting Love Pops and teddy bears from one person or another. Perhaps it's that cycle of destruction deal again, with me segregating myself and never giving anyone the chance to love me. Or maybe I am just unloved.
I wore all black yesterday, and I'm proud of it.
