Through a Glass, Darkly

In high school, I never had a boyfriend. (Side note: I have always wondered if my former classmates are amused that I got married so early, since I didn’t date much. Probably they don’t think about me at all.) I was mostly okay with not having a boyfriend, because I didn’t go to school with a lot of guys I really wanted to date. In case any of them one day read this, I will say that many of them were and are very nice guys, but we just didn’t have a lot in common. And I was no catch in those days myself.

It got hard at Valentine’s Day, though. I still didn’t want to go out with any of those guys in particular, but I did want someone to send me roses to school. Every year massive amounts of roses and balloons would get sent to the school. It would fill the stage in the auditorium. And all the happy people with significant others would pick up their roses and smile, while the rest of us would just be reminded that we were alone and unwanted. Things have changed a lot since I was in high school. I wonder if security even allows flowers to be delivered to schools. They could have anthrax or something on them.

Now, of course, I spend Valentine’s Day with my husband. Married people tend to think of V-Day as just another day. Another day where we have to buy something for our spouse, or get dressed up and go out to dinner. This is offensive to a lot of my single friends, because the point is that we aren’t alone on this holiday that is all about relationships. Sometimes Valentine’s Day just makes me sad.