The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: Viewpoints

Second-year English student

How does one measly day manage to bring out the worst in so many people? A day that comes once a year, dazzled in sugar hearts with cute little sayings and aisles of boxes of chocolate and roses (the one day when it's supposedly okay to mix pink and red) - what is it about Valentine's Day that reveals some of the ugliest personality traits of both the single and the romantically involved?

Whether you think of today as a day of Cupid and true love or as, according to Jim Carrey's character in "Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind," "a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap," you have to see the humor in what people make of it all.

You've got the people, who are single and don't want to be, who spend the whole week before Valentine's Day complaining about their lonely lives of solitude. They claim the holiday is meant to torture the single and make the taken feel good about themselves. These are the people who will buy a box of chocolate for themselves and fall in front of the television with a bottle of wine watching "Titanic" tonight. Maybe someone should send them a box of candy hearts that say "Get Over Yourself" on them.

Then there are the lucky ones who are in loving relationships and want nothing more than to flaunt their "couplehood" in front of every single friend they have. These were the kids in elementary school that made you read all of their valentines and spread them out all over their desk for everyone to see even though everyone knew that it was fifth grade and you had to give everyone a valentine.

And then there are the people who hate Valentine's not because they are single and alone, but because of the absurdity of a day that forces boyfriends around the country to buy a dozen roses and a fancy dinner for their girlfriend. Usually these people pretty much complain about all the holidays because they hate anything that puts emphasis on something just for the fun of it - especially on something as frivolous as romance.

All the whining lamenting singles, the ostentatious couples and the irritable anti-socialists need to get over themselves and realize that nobody really wants to hear it.

It's one day a year and it's not that important. It's a day for girls to talk about ex-boyfriends around a carton of ice-cream while watching cheesy chick-flicks and a day for couples to go out on a romantic dinner in the middle of the week.

So today, if you're stressing over those flowers you forgot to send or complaining about the obnoxious hearts everywhere, hold back, smile and enjoy a meaninglessly fun holiday.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools