When I was in 7th grade, my school put on a fundraiser around Valentines Day. Students could pre-order lip shaped suckers for eachother, attach a note, and the recipient got theirs during home room on the 14th. Most people ordered them for their friends, the people who had a boyfriend or girlfriend (if you can even call it that in middle school) got some for their significant other, and a lot of smart people bought anonymous ones for themselves. Unfortunately, I did not fall into the last group of people, and I ended up being the only person in my homeroom class who didn’t receive one. People generally do not have a lot of positive memories from middle school, but what happened next is something I have never forgotten. I was pretty shy in middle school, so I did not find the result of the fundraiser particularly surprising, and I did not make a big deal out of it. At some point during the period, I excused myself to use the bathroom. When I came back, the teacher announced that she had “forgotten” to hand out a sucker. She then handed me one where the little note had been marked out and replaced with my name. I never found out who did it.
It was because of this moment (and the fact that I generally think it’s a dumb commercial holiday) that I will never “hate” Valentines Day. Every year since 7th grade, I have attempted to “pay it forward”. When I was in college, this was easy. I friend of mine would help me make a bunch of anonymous cards, and we would run around and slide them under people’s doors. We never knew what happened to them, but I would like to hope someone got a nice surprise like I did on a day many people don’t tend to look forward to. Now that I am out of college and not constantly surrounded by people, this has been a little more difficult, but I still try my best to make someone’s day every year. If you are one of those people who devote Valentines Day to self-loathing or self-pity, don’t. If you are one of those people who flood all forms of social media with complaints about “Single Awareness Day”, don’t. If you don’t have a significant other tomorrow, do something for a stranger. You might be surprised how good it feels
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