“It’s almost Valentine’s Day!” Just hearing the phrase is enough to make most collegiettes anxious. We generally fall into one of two categories: Valentine’s Day lovers and Valentine’s Day haters. But even if you are among the few in the “lovers” group, there are enough horror stories about the day to make even the most hopeless romantic shudder.
So whether you’re single and feeling a little bitter this Valentine’s Day or happily celebrating with your SO, check out these anecdotes about how the day took a horrific turn for some collegiettes.
“My freshman year of college, I was dating this boy I totally didn’t like (I was too nice to break his heart; that’s why I kept up this dog-and-pony show/nightmare). We had been together for two months on Valentine’s Day, where he planned some overly elaborate gig. He made my roommate/best friend leave the room and he rearranged things so there was a TV propped on a shelf. He put a letter in my mailbox, which was the beginning of a treasure hunt, which led me back to my room. When I walked in, the room was pitch black and he was dressed up and wearing too much cologne. He presented me with a rose in a homemade vase. He rented Say Anything and some other cheesy movie, which we watched on the TV. This sounds super romantic and it probably would have been if I had liked him. It was so sweet that he put so much effort into it, but it was so awful.”
– Mary Beth, Aquinas College
“In high school, I was really sad one Valentine’s Day because I had just broken up with my boyfriend, but there was this cute guy in some of my classes that I liked. I decided I wanted to make him my valentine, so I wrote him a poem that combined soccer—his favorite sport—with Valentine’s Day, and I bought him a chocolate rose. I found out what his first class was and left the poem and the chocolate rose on his desk. When class was over, I went to his classroom and he saw me and he gave me a hug and said that it was very nice… but he wanted to be just friends. Awkward. I’ve been traumatized ever since.”
– Sarah, University of San Diego
“On one Valentine’s Day, I was leaving on a mission trip to go to Jamaica. But, since it was a school day, I went to school for half the day. When I went to my locker to put my books away right before leaving for the airport, I saw that somebody had taped a rose and a Jamaican flag to my locker with the note: ‘Will you go out with me?’ It was signed by one of my guy friends. The problem? I hadn’t told him that I had started going out with a different guy the week before. Oops? It was so awkward!”
– Jacqueline, University of Southern California
“In high school, I told my boyfriend that I didn’t like Valentine’s Day and didn’t want to celebrate, which he had a problem with because he likes to consider himself a romantic and good at these things. But I got a text from my best friend asking me what my underwear size was and that he was buying me some! I kept thinking, 1) my boyfriend is currently shopping in Victoria’s Secret with my best friend, and 2) he thinks buying me ‘sexy’ underwear is romantic and a good response to my desire to not do anything for Valentine’s Day?! When the day came, he picked me up from school in his friend’s Infiniti (because it was fancier than his car) and ‘surprised me’ with all this ‘sexy’ underwear. It was awful and so not my personality!”
– Becky, University of Southern California
“One Valentine’s Day I was supposed to go out with a group of my friends—guys included—to dinner and a movie. It was going to be casual because we were all single and definitely not into each other—or so I thought. When I got to dinner though, it turns out the whole group (about 10 people) were in on this elaborate plan that one of our guy friends was going to ask me out. We were close friends but I definitely didn’t think of him as more and I had no idea that he liked me. At dinner he had roses, balloons and other presents for me, and I was quickly whisked away to have a private one-on-one dinner with him. The entire night was awful because all I could think about was how I definitely needed to tell him that this wasn’t going anywhere. I finally did at the end of the night and he was pretty upset about it. We haven’t really talked since.”
– Chelsea, San Diego State University
“When I was in high school, my boyfriend took me to his locker on Valentine’s Day and took out a wooden box which he handed to me. It weighed at least 15 pounds. The box had a lock, but he said in order to get the key I had to carry the box around all day. So the whole day I lugged this box around and everybody—including my teachers—were asking about it. At the end of the day, I couldn’t find my boyfriend to open the box. Turns out, he ‘forgot’ to give me the key and said he would bring it to school the next day. So I had to bring the stupid box back to school and carry it again. When he finally gave me the key, inside the box was heart confetti (that he had sprayed with his cologne), a ton of fake coins (which made the box heavy) and magnetic words like the ones you put on your fridge. He explained that those were words that ‘described me.’ In the end, there was nothing substantial in the box and who knows why he thought the fake coins were a good idea. Literally, it was the worst Valentine’s Day ever.”
– Crystal, University of Southern California
“My freshman year of college, I went home to spend Valentine’s Day weekend with my boyfriend. We had been dating for 3 years and were typical ‘high school sweethearts.’ When I got there, things were a little different between us. It’s hard to describe, but basically he was sending me a vibe that there was something wrong. On Valentine’s Day morning, I couldn’t get in touch with him. When he eventually called me back, he asked if we could get together ‘to talk.’ We met for coffee and he essentially told me that he had met another girl and he didn’t think we should be together any more. I didn’t believe he was doing that to me ON VALENTINE’S DAY. I was a wreck the rest of the day. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to celebrate Valentine’s Day after that.”
– Raquel, University of California, Los Angeles
So collegiettes, if you think you’ve had a bad Valentine’s Day, it could be worse. You might be best this year just staying in and inviting the girls over for a Ryan Gosling marathon (he’d be the best Valentine a girl could have anyway). Good luck!