Opinion | Valentine’s Day from six feet away
Mady Dever, Opinions Editor
In high school, I remember Valentine’s Day being a celebration where those who were single felt an overwhelming weight of pressure or sadness for not having someone in their lives to spoil with flowers and chocolates. I couldn’t get through the day each year without someone talking about how dumb the holiday was, or making fun of the fact that they were single.
Look, I’m as single as they come, but I have always loved Valentine’s Day.
It was a day where I could drink wine and eat chocolates just because I was celebrating the love in the world. By the way, heart-shaped raviolis are always a must-buy at Costco. I always planned dinners with friends or a romantic comedy movie night. And I never passed up the chance to buy gifts for family and friends, perusing the aisles of CVS Pharmacy for a cheesy box of chocolates or conversation hearts.
But in case you forgot, we are in a pandemic, so Valentine’s Day looked a little different for some people. No candle-lit dinners in a crowded restaurant, that’s for sure. For those worried about being the only single person in the room on Valentine’s Day, don’t be. For fear of spreading a virus, we weren’t in any group settings where you would stand out as being single, and better yet, Valentine’s Day fell on a Sunday, so you didn’t even have to log onto Zoom.
From the old “back in my day” stories I hear time and time again, so many couples have met their partners while in college. Graduates of 2021 got one year axed out of that plan, with no opportunity to meet new people. That’s just so odd.
Romantic, platonic, whatever it is, I haven’t really met anyone new this past year as I normally might have with a year's worth of new classmates. Sure, I’ve seen new people through my computer, but that’s just not the same. And if I have met someone new, it would have been a fleeting conversation through a mask from six feet away. Let’s be honest, with all of those barriers, it’s safe to say we are guessing 50% of the conversation while nodding and smiling to avoid awkward miscommunication.
So, if someone is looking to date during the pandemic — tough luck. Flirting has become obsolete. The only flirting I’m doing is imaginary eye contact with my Zoom crushes whom I’ve never actually met in person before. Oh, who am I kidding? Flirting was obsolete for me long before lockdown.
But not commemorating Valentine’s in person has made me feel like I am reverting to more archaic forms of celebration. I utilized the postal system. And stamps. And envelopes. What a concept. It’s not often I find myself mailing someone a letter. Something about it felt almost more special than being able to hand out a box of chocolate in person.
That’s not to say I don’t miss a good hug, but hope was not all lost. Part of this hope came from two friends I saw driving down the road belting Taylor Swift’s “Picture to Burn” — the perfect Valentine’s Day energy. Clearly, there were ways to celebrate safely. Like everything else this year, we have to learn to do things a little differently, and meeting my perfect, tall, handsome-and-mysterious (and vaccinated) future boyfriend will just have to happen another time.