Don't Settle For The Candy

Twice a week, my school sits together as a community in a Quaker Meeting for Worship. Often, we are given a query to consider. While I rarely speak in Meeting, sometimes a blog post in born from the question we are pondering. Friday's query was: What does Valentine's Day mean to you? Is it just about candy or telling someone you have a crush on them, or does it mean something more than that?

When I was a teenager, I absolutely hated Valentine's Day and most things. Every February 14th, I would invite all of my girl friends over for an Anti V-Day party: everyone was required to wear black and bring a bag of candy, and I would provide a movie with absolutely zero romantic plot line. "Valentine's Day is a holiday invented by card companies to sell us crap we don't need!" I would exclaim. I think I just hated how much it was shoved down our throats.

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So naturally, I was a bit concerned about Valentine's Day in high school from the other side. After all, my students don't always handle human relationships... um... at all.

As I sat in Meeting on Friday listening to my students respond to this query, I was overwhelmed by the maturity with which they approached this subject. Themes of community, friendship, and service ran in all of their messages. The whole room was on the same page.

Throughout the day, students (not just couples!) gave each other cheesy gifts, held hands, and exchanged kind words. We had a small Valentine's Day shop in the lobby to raise money for our sister school in Africa, and it warmed my heart to see the students buying things for each other and supporting a good cause at the same time. Sure, the students were out of their minds on sugar all day. But it was an awesome day. At the end of the day, one of my coworkers and I travelled around the building delivering anonymous flowers to classrooms, throwing petals, singing songs, and making a ton of Mean Girls references.

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I still think Valentine's Day might be a day created by Hallmark to make us buy heart-shaped things at a 30% markup. But with all of the horrible things happening in the world every single day, isn't it wonderful that we have this one day that forces us to stop and appreciate the people in our lives that bring us joy? Maybe for you that means your spouse or your significant other. Maybe for you that means your best friends or your roommates. Maybe it means your students, your teachers, your coworkers, your boss, or your employees. Maybe it just means the guy at the deli who makes your egg sandwich in the mornings (shout out to Russell at Court Order, and the two other bodega men that my ASL 2 students mentioned when I gave this schpeal to them on Friday). The world is a dark, twisted, scary place. And we don't force ourselves to appreciate the light in it enough.

So even though it's a few days late, if you are reading this, I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day, and I owe you a piece of overpriced chocolate.

What does Valentine's Day mean to YOU? Is it worth seeing beyond the hype?