Teens on Valentine's Day
Samyukta, Visakhapatnam
Ah, Valentine's day: a day which originated when a Roman emperor executed a man named St. Valentine but somehow a day we now spend celebrating our love with the latest version of dairy milk silk. It is truly a joyous occasion for all, though slightly more for the shops.
Being a western event, valentine’s day was of no significance to us. Asking Indian parents to spend their hard-earned money on chocolates so you can prove or confess your love to someone ends with them giving you another lecture on studying. “Pehele padhai karlo, phir apne paiso se jo karna hai karlena”. Over the years the hype over this day has affected us all and now you will find almost every person rushing to purchase Cadbury sweets and white teddy bears holding red hearts, so, during this time every year,, the sales skyrocket with stores marketing red, white and pink.
While some may find this cute, I would like to think that most teens, like myself, find Valentine's day an absolute waste of time.
Films love portraying teenagers as lovesick adolescents who are completely infatuated with the people they like, while in reality it is rather the opposite - they’re quite cynical. There are no more ‘puppy love’ miracles, now there is only ‘xxx replied to your story’ so not as cute as “tumhari smile kitni dangerous hai pata hai? Mere paas dil hota na, toh teri smile pe pakka aa jaata”.
The point is that teens have no interest in things like this anymore. All those mushy-gushy feelings are of no importance when you have assignments to submit and notes to complete. Worried about not having a date? I’m more worried about attending offline classes and my accountancy teacher finding out that I thought depreciation actually meant the opposite of the word appreciation. Even if you do get asked out on valentine’s day, it is bound to end up being a series of unfortunate events because one thing teens hate is awkward public situations and being asked to be someone’s valentine on 14th Feb in front of a crowd. Adding to the misery, everyone wants to see the drama when word gets out, making it worse especially when you’re about to say no.
Do not even bring up the prospect of having a “crush” (hate that word) and actually wanting to have plans on the 14th. You know your social anxiety is not going to let you utter even a word to the person of your liking. Even when you do somehow get past it, your only reward is a whole new set of insecurities you’ve never had to deal with before. “Why isn’t he texting me back? Did he realise that one of my eyes is bigger than the other!”, when in reality all they are trying to do is reply to your eloquent text “yea lol”.
The point is there are too many risky factors involved in this one day and the days leading up to it. You’re better off remaining alone with just your Spotify playlists and fake scenarios to keep you company.
Or maybe just this once you could try to be all lovey-dovey. You shouldn’t let that Roman guy’s
death be in vain. Just for that reason and definitely not because the girl who sits in front of you has pretty hair and smells like rainbows and sunshine and you actually want to give her all the dairy milk silk chocolates in the world. No, definitely not because of that.
What teens really find to be a waste of time but actually end up liking sometimes yet are too stubborn to admit because they’re teens: valentine’s day.
Happy Loving!
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