Valentine’s Day
My first real experience with Valentine’s Day would have to be in the 6th grade when a boy named Bryan gave me and my best friend a red rose wrapped in tin foil.
Looking back, that is a super confusing move or brilliant depending on how you look at it. Was he trying to see which one of us would be interested? Was I really the one he liked and was kissing up to the best friend, or visa versa? Or was he simply an 11-year-old kid who had absolutely no idea what was doing? We will never really now know, will we? I do know I cherished the red rose in the tin foil and dried it until I left for college.
The next mile marker on Valentine’s is 11th grade when my then boyfriend gave me a locket without a chain. He did not want to pick one out for me since he “did not know my taste” or that was the story he stuck to. I remember looking at him so incredibly confused not believing one word he was saying, and this was after a year of dating. It came down to money, as most things did with him. I know you are shocked we broke up a few months later.
My college boyfriend was better and must have realized you are supposed to send flowers to your girlfriend and take her out to dinner. It was well done. Many of the other guys on campus did not get the memo of what to do to not lead your girlfriend to cry and breaking up with you. I would hear stories of guys handing their significant others a Michelob Light with a heart drawn on it, and being surprised it did not end well.
Valentine’s Day to me now is about celebrating Love with my kids. They always get presents, and even a little candy, and are reminded of how much we love them.
To those of you with fabulous plans tonight- have a great time.
To those who have their relationship status listed as “it’s complicated” or simply do not have plans tonight, watching The Office on Netflix and hanging out with your friends is a better choice than going out with someone who may or may not give you a version of a beer can with a heart drawn on it.
You are worth more than that!!
Erin Wathen
As a Holistic Health Coach, it is Erin’s big hairy audacious goal is to change the dialogue around how we look at weight loss. It is not a matter of being it Ketosis or Food Swaps but the feelings we have that we are avoiding by overeating. Why are so many of us not tackling the real issues we have? It is easier and safer to obsess over the latest diet fad. Whether it be with our job, or our Mom, boyfriend, politics… until we address how we manage our feelings in the world, we are not going to.
