Valentine's Day

Love it or hate it, February 14th will always come every year. Some find the chocolates, cards, teddy bears and candy hearts associated with the holiday undeniably sweet while others feel the exact opposite, asserting that Valentine’s Day should not even be a holiday at all.

Like many, freshman Shea Hanna says her Valentine’s Day highlight was in the time of classroom parties. “It’s kind of just another holiday I guess. It’s not really a big deal for me.I definitely liked it when I was younger because we would get those classroom bags of candies that everyone would get,” says Hanna. “But now, I’m just like ‘Okay, it’s Valentine’s Day.’”

In the past years Seabury has allowed students to wear pink and red colored clothes to school when Valentine’s Day falls on a weekday, but does not organize any elementary school style class parties. “I just think that we should acknowledge Valentine’s Day at Seabury. I think that would be fun,” says eighth grader Evan Roney. Roney says he enjoyed having classroom parties as an elementary school student. “With Valentine’s Day, it’s something you look forward to in elementary school, but in middle school it’s just like ‘Oh yeah, cool,’” says Roney.

Sophomore Max Akers says that he agrees with Roney about still celebrating Valentine's Day despite being a little old for passing out cards. “In elementary school we would pass around these little gifts and stuff to everyone else in the class. There was so much candy,” says Akers. “It’s still a good thing to acknowledge [Valentine’s Day] in a similar fashion to when you were younger.”

It seems that now at this age not many celebrate the love themed holiday as much as they used to. “I don’t really do anything for [Valentine’s Day] now that I think about it,” Hanna says. “Maybe I’ll eat something pink for breakfast, something like that, but not really anything big.”

Over the past few years the new trend of Galentine’s Day has emerged as a sort of Valentine’s Day alternative where spending time with one’s friends is the main focus rather than with a significant other. “I would rather celebrate with my friends,” says seventh grader Sage McHenry. “Sometimes [my friends and I] go to get food or something, but we don’t really do anything too fancy.”

Although there are passionate lovers of Valentine’s Day out there, a popular opinion is that it is an overrated and corny holiday. “I just think it’s kind of cheesy when people propose on Valentine’s Day,” says McHenry. “It’s like ‘Wow, that’s really original.’”

Akers argues that, in comparison to other holidays, Valentine’s Day is pretty straightforward. “I think it’s not as necessary as some of the other holidays, but still necessary,” says Akers.

Simply put, Roney says, “I think Valentine’s Day is kind of dumb. I think it’s overrated because we’re too young to do much.” There seems to be a gap of time from about middle school through high school where students either seem too old to pass out little Valentine’s Day cards and candy to all their classmates but also seem too young to do many other activities like Roney mentions.

Valentine’s Day is like a gentle reminder to celebrate those in your life that you value the most and to let them know. Whether that is friends, family, a significant other or anyone else important. Akers says, “While Valentine’s Day is a holiday to proclaim love to other people, I feel like you can do that every day.”