Valentine's Day

[Sleepy]

With Valentine's Day coming up next week, I thought it'd be interesting to see where people stand on this matter. I know a lot of people feel strongly one way or another about the day, so feel free to voice your opinions and further explain here.

Personally, while some aspects of it annoy the hell out of me ("Show her you love her with DIAMONDS!"), it is a nice reminder of the people in your life who you love. Sure, we shouldn't need a reminder, but sometimes it's frighteningly easy to overlook with the fast-paced lives we have.

[Dantes Virgil]

I think I feel as you do. 

I have an instantly bad reaction to anything that declares "You must show your love by doing X, or it's not real!"  (Like buying jewelry.)  But as you mentioned, life goes by too fast, sometimes, and I see nothing wrong with taking some time out to recognize the people you love.  Preferably, though, I try to do it just after V-Day, so I get a massive discount on loads of chocolate......

[nickiknack]

I really don't care that much either way for Valentine's day. It's just another day to me (most holidays are for me), the only good thing are the sales on  the chocolate & candy, the day after.

[Smurfette Principle]

I put a lot of stock in Valentine's Day, mostly because I have yet to celebrate it with someone I love. I celebrated it once with my first boyfriend, whom I did not love, and I would have celebrated it with my boyfriend in my senior year of high school, but had to go to a scholarship competition instead. So I won't get to celebrate it with him in person until we're both out of college, and maybe even until we're out of graduate school, depending on where we go. So we give each other presents (he got me Warcraft, I got him a Homestuck T-shirt), but we won't get to just snuggle and whatnot for another three years or so.

[Her3tiK]

On principle, I refuse to go out of my way to show affection for someone just because a (gift card) company says to. Granted, I've only celebrated V-Day with one person I was dating (she broke up with me that night), so this could admittedly be due to some kind of bias, but I don't like gifts on Christmas for the same reason.

As far as I'm concerned, if you're with someone and you love them, you should do special things for them regardless of the holiday in question. Regardless of how much my latest ex may hate me, she can't deny that I did a lot of little (and not so little) things for her simply because I felt like it that particular week. With that said, I might try to break my general disdain of V-Day this year to see if that girl I've mentioned elsewhere could spare some time in her schedule to go out to dinner or something*, but even that's likely to be a one-time thing.

*Just had that idea while typing and managed to freak myself out at the prospect. Yay....

[DarkfireTaimatsu]

You know what I miss? I miss elementary school, where everyone would have to get valentines for everyone else. At least then, no one was left out.

[Art Vandelay]

I simply don't care. I generally don't like greeting card companies telling me to buy their product on an arbitrary day of the year for an arbitrary reason and I don't know anyone with whom I can get all touchy-feely, so I just ignore it.

[Cerim Treascair]

my specified 'other' answer:  It's nice, if you have someone to share it with... beyond that? it's a good way to get cheap candy afterwards, like christmas and halloween.

[Shane for Wax]

I prefer this instead. Woof.

[QueenofHearts]

I don't really care either way. I personally see it as nothing but a commercial holiday which tries to force people to buy things like chocolates, flowers, or diamonds*. I've also stated before that I am very romantic (I prefer emotional attraction & innocent pleasures with that special someone to be far more important than sex), and in this sense I feel creating a day to show attraction belittles attraction in a way. If I'm truly in love with someone, the day of the year should not matter how or when I express it. However, I see a lot of people looking forward to it and I believe that it does serve them some kind of purpose, even if I don't see the point in it.

*Too bad I'm single, I would really enjoy getting chocolates or flowers   

[Podkayne]

I have just recieved a valentines day cthulu plush for my partner

[RavynousHunter]

I shouldn't even be awake right now, much less coherent, but I may as well speak my piece.  (Its not gonna be a happy story...)

I've had a very...bad history with Valentine's Day.  Never once did the schools do the "everyone gets Valentines" thing.  The only gifts I ever got were from my parents, and while I don't resent them or dismiss them as unimportant, it was the one time of year I got to see the happy couples around school dote on their paramours with impunity.  As many of you have probably already guessed, I wasn't a kid with a lot of friends.  I was (and, to an extent, still am) a very severe introvert to the point of generally eschewing social interaction because trying to talk to someone sometimes led to panic attacks...  So, this was the most depressing day of the year for me.  I hated when the year would roll over, because I knew that day was near, and I knew I wouldn't have a "special someone" to share it with.  Again.  I longed for that companionship, and that ache turned into severe pain on that day.  It was so bad I...got far closer to being genuinely suicidal than I have at any other time in my life.  I tried desperately to find any way to get out of school during the week-long Valentine's Day celebrations they had...I honestly wished I could come down with some horrible case of the flu or something, just so I could be free from it.

But, these days...it doesn't bother me as much.  Yes, its commercialized, like many other holidays...but its not nearly as bad as it used to be.  Its something I'd actually enjoy celebrating with that special girl in my life.  The bad things...they're in the past.  I wish I could just start over...but, not being able to do that, I can at least try and work toward being a happier person; one that...actually kinda likes Valentine's Day, if for no other reason than finally having someone to share it with.

[Jebediah]

I never cared for it until I started dating someone. Now I feel like it's a pretty nice day.

[GLaDOS]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUjAArpZn6A" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUjAArpZn6A</a>

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

I never cared for it until I started dating someone. Now I feel like it's a pretty nice day.

This, and also what Sleepy said. I've never seen it as a huge deal, but it's kind of nice to exchange gifts and hang out with the person you're with. It does become somewhat silly when people expect one partner (almost always the guy) to set up some big, elaborate night full of saccharine crap, however.