During this time of year, I tend to feel nostalgic. Well, I tend to feel nostalgic during most times of the year, but Valentine’s Day season especially makes me miss the simple days of elementary school. Some of my fondest memories from my first six years of schooling occurred during Valentine’s Day parties that were held for each grade. Honestly, the world would be a lot better if we treated Valentine’s Day the way that elementary schoolers do.
First of all, everybody gets a Valentine. Yes, critics of the soft, American “everybody gets a trophy” mentality may think that we are placing too much value on not hurting anybody’s feelings with this philosophy. But there was always a way of making sure that we told those who meant the most to us exactly how much we cared. Like giving our best friends one with a lollipop attached to it and giving that kid who picked his nose some random, generic one. Or making sure that the coolest note in that pack of Scooby-Doo Valentines went to our crushes.
And, of course, there was the candy. Valentine’s Day falls at a good enough distance after Halloween for most of that October candy stash to be gone. As kids, we needed that mid-winter sugar rush to get us through the cold months, just like Halloween was the sugar rush that pushed us until winter break. Valentine’s Day came at the perfect time to provide that. At these parties in elementary school, there were pink cupcakes, brownies, doughnuts, candy hearts, Sweet Tarts, Nerds, lollipops, and chocolates of all shapes and sizes. Just seeing that pink and red packaging was enough to make us go wild. Yes, we still consume plenty of Valentine’s candy during the college years, but not with that same unrestrained enthusiasm that kids do.
But beyond the material culture of Valentine’s Day was something greater; something that I feel is most missing in our current celebration of the holiday. During those elementary school parties, classes were cancelled for the afternoon, everybody in the grade gathered together, and parent volunteers came in to help. There was such an overwhelming sense of community as we all consumed our body weight in sugar and the adults rolled their eyes, secretly jealous. For a holiday that is centered on love, there was certainly love at these parties. But instead of focusing on romantic love, which we probably understand now as much as we understood then, we focused on love for our friends, love for our teachers, and love for our parents. That is why Valentine’s Day matters.
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