Student Publications
University of Houston
151C Communications Bldg
Houston, TX 77204-4015
713.743.5350

©1991-2007
Student Publications,
All rights reserved.

Last modified:

Contact:
ktruitt@uh.edu

Opinion

Eat your heart out Valentine's Day

Armand Jawanmardi

Valentine's Day is like gonorrhea: Just when you think it has disappeared for good, it rears its hideous face once more. Sure I may be writing this out of jealousy, bitterness and maybe even senility. But to put it simply, Valentine's Day isn't everything it is cracked up too be.

OK Cougars, let's face the cold, hard truth: Valentine's Day forces you to swallow the humility of your loneliness. Take Hallmark, for example. I hate those stupid blushing bears -- what's all that stuff about? I believe that if you really love, or even really like someone, you'll be spontaneously romantic and sickeningly sweet on a regular day. Besides, Valentine's Day is just a corporate propagandized day to make more money. Ever noticed how rose prices go up from $15 for a dozen to a ridiculous $25 to $50 a dozen? Ever noticed why there is a sudden line at your neighborhood Hallmark store? You Hallmark fiends disappoint me. You make Valentine's Day seem like a time when you can express your feelings for someone through a Hallmark card because you have neither the time nor imagination to do it yourself in your own words.

There's no mistake about it. Valentine's Day is not worth the hype. Everyone runs around professing his or her love and promising eternal allegiance to one another. It makes me queasy. If someone truly cares about you, I think you would hear it more often than once a year. Instead, you are presented with a cheesy Hallmark card for $2.95 and a heart-shaped cardboard box picked up from CVS filled with cheap chocolates made with oils and lard. This in turn will supposedly cover all the blemishes and blunders in the relationship with one swoop, leaving the giver forgiven of all sins committed within the past year. 

Another thing about this horrid day is that people start anticipating it soon after New Year's. Once Super Bowl Sunday has passed, you know that for the next month or so, all you will be hearing is this wonderful day in which Cupid -- the miniature, obese angel wearing nothing but a loincloth -- has pierced someone's heart with his little "arrow of love." Spare me. I think I'd rather give him a shotgun wound to the head.

Now, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not a single guy bent on giving grief to everyone else who is in a relationship. I'm a stark realist. Wouldn't you want someone to express his or her love of the person's own volition, not because some fabricated greeting card holiday sponsored by Hallmark compels him or her to do so?

However, Valentine's Day does have its moments. To be brutally honest, despite the harsh sounding criticisms, I too hope to fall victim to its corruption. It's a day when you can put all your feelings aside and share a moment with someone, be it a friend or a significant other, and have all the worries of the world disappear for the evening. 

Moreover, Valentine's Day offers a wonderful opportunity to unveil your feelings for someone you admire, care about, and want to get to know better -- even Hallmark should not get in the way of that. 

To all who live through the day, whether you choose to participate in it or not, remember that Valentine's Day will eventually pass, so make the best of it.
 

Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu