He said/She said – Are students too old to pass out valentines?

Photo Credit: Jess Cleveland

Sophmore Taylor Dunavant kindly offers Sophmore Billy Milem a valentine.

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By Billy Milem and Taylor Dunavant
February 7, 2010
Filed under Opinion & Editorial

HE SAID: BY BILLY MILEM
As the years go by, some holiday traditions are outgrown and no longer practiced. We don’t put our teeth under our pillows, we don’t set out cookies and milk for Santa Claus, we don’t go hunting for Easter eggs, and the majority of us don’t hand out valentines to everyone we know.

Back in elementary school, it was fun to pass out valentines and candy to everyone in our class, but I feel like we have outgrown that tradition. As we get older, Valentine’s Day should be less about little cards and those nasty chalky candy hearts, and more about just spending time with your significant other or other loved ones.

I doubt the original concept of Valentine’s Day was to pass out little pieces of paper with pictures of cartoon characters on them. It’s always a good idea to give flowers or chocolates to your loved one, but you might receive little more than an awkward look if you’re giving out SpongeBob valentines.

SHE SAID: BY TAYLOR DUNAVANT
No. Saying someone is too old to hand out a valentine is like saying you’re too old to give a “Get Well” card. It is simply a nice gesture. Are we really too old to be polite?

It’s almost Valentine’s Day and the store shelves are packed with countless themed valentines. From Dora the Explorer all the way to Spiderman, boxes are filled with cards containing sweet sayings and catchy phrases. A little further down you see valentines with no particular theme besides the colors pink and red still containing a thoughtful sentence and a “Happy Valentine’s Day”. All of these guarantee a smile no matter if you’re six or sixty, so why not show a friend you care?

After handing a friend a valentine, you usually receive a smile and a “thank you” followed by a nice feeling of accomplishment knowing you made their day. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you’re never too old to share a smile.

Hey, you might even get more than a smile. They might decide to hand you a nicely decorated valentine as well. After the exchange, you walk away feeling pretty happy. You move on to the next person with a priceless grin that becomes somewhat…contagious. Are we too old to share happiness?

Not only do you hand out valentines to make someone happy, but also to show affection to your “special someone.” While a valentine is just a decorated piece of paper and a few nice words, it becomes much more when you hand it to the person you care a lot about. It becomes even more special if the valentine was hand-made. Yes, it’s just a card, but it’s a card that will probably be kept and remembered along with the feelings that came with it.

In the end, we walk the halls and very few pull out bags of valentines to share with their friends. For the many who don’t participate, their reasons could include forgetting or simply not caring, but being too old is not an excuse. For those of you who do share a valentine or two, hold your head high and smile wide and feel good about sharing the love. If valentines with various characters and colors bring a smile to someone’s face, then why not pass them out?