Love is in the air. I’m not sure how this commonly accepted phrase limits love to only the air. Why can’t love be in the ocean too? Valentine’s Day has become extremely commercialized to the extent where people spend whatever money they have left over from Christmas on loved ones. Valentine’s Day is the ugly stepchild in the family of holidays. Christmas and Thanksgiving would be the overachieving, ambitious children, while Valentine’s Day would be the kid that sneaks out of the house during the night, drinks copious amounts of alcohol, crashes the family car into a ditch and stumbles home with a broken leg.
I never understood why kids celebrate Valentine’s Day in school. Although it is nice to exchange gifts and tell others what you appreciate about them, it is a completely different matter to profess your love to someone else. When you look at the seemingly innocuous heart candies that kids are exchanging, look again. On these hearts are printed little sweet nothings such as “Real Love,” “Hug Me” and “Let’s Kiss,” and the most obvious confession of admiration, “Love You.” Does it make a girl or boy sleazy if she or he gives out the “Let’s Kiss” candy heart to everyone girl or boy they see?
Remember when you were in elementary school and you gave everyone in class a special letter? Nowadays, with a high dependency on I-Tweet and Facechat, does that mean that kids are still exchanging letters? I think instead of exchanging letters, they are instamessaging their notes to all of the students. This is far more effective and less time-consuming than the conventional letter-writing method. Think about it. If you have to write twenty letters, and it takes ten minutes to write one letter, that’s three hours wasted. If you FaceTweet the message, it takes only ten minutes. With the remaining two hours and 50 minutes, you can update your Facebook Status or send out InstaSnaps.
By this point, you may be asking yourself how this wonderful holiday came to be. The Valentine in Valentine’s Day comes from the name Valentinus. Saint Valentine was responsible for wedding soldiers who were barred from marriage. During his imprisonment, he healed Asterius, who was the daughter of his jailer. Before his execution, he wrote her a letter that was signed “Your Valentine.” Romantic isn’t it? This upcoming Valentine’s Day, just keep in mind that it stems from an executed saint who performed forbidden wedding ceremonies.
Chiodo is a member of
the class of 2017.
