Say So Yourself

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Was there no better thought in your head,

Than to simply buy a card that says “I love you”?

Let me start out by saying I like Valentine’s Day. I always have. Perhaps it’s because it is a day when people give you candy, and I was a fat child. However, as years go by, this holiday is getting more and more unbearable. It’s not because of the commercials and not because of the candy (I apparently still have a problem), but rather it is the Valentine’s Day cards.

I know that there are people who are paid to phrase things in ways that most of us can’t on our own. They create these cards that say something so eloquently yet so simply that we think that it’ll be just as moving if we take those words and hand them off to a significant other as if we had anything more to do in forming them than a copy machine does in writing works of Shakespeare. It seems like a great thought. You want the words to be perfect, but there is a problem with perfection: nothing genuine is ever truly perfect. I personally would much rather have someone stumble over their words and say the wrong ones here and there than say something so rehearsed that it sounds like a line from a bad rom-com. Of course, that is because I believe it is better to do something original imperfectly than to copy another’s words or actions, perfectly.

So this year, dare to say your own words. Dare to say the wrong words. Dare to truly be sincere and come up with your own original things to say and do. Dare to humiliate yourself by revealing how unskilled at being romantic you truly are on your own. Dare to be genuine.

Of course, I realize that some of you will probably read this on Valentine’s Day after you’ve already bought a card and flowers so…hey, I’m sure your significant other loved them. I’m sure it was perfect. There’s always next year.