It was this year

I have been waiting for it to happen.  Every year for the last 4 years I have awaited this moment on this day.  I knew it would happen someday and this year it did. 

Ashli came to me and said, “I hate this.”  She was filling out Valentine’s Day cards.  I asked what was going on and she said that she was having a hard time picking which cards to give to which boys.  Not because she liked them, but because she didn’t.  She wanted to make sure that the boys wouldn’t think she liked them based of her Valentines. 

I remember the same thing going through my mind when I was a kid.  There was also the anxiety over which one to give to the girl you really liked so that she might intuit that you liked her and wanted her to be your Valentine for real.  Boys have the added disadvantage of having to give cards to other boys.  As there are usually 5 out of the pack of 20 that say something like “You are super!”  All the rest always had cutesy Valentine’s phrases.  So unless you were in a classroom with only 5 boys, there were going to be boys that got a “Be mine, Valentine” from you. 

Odd thing, after I got my cards, I never really looked to see what the boys or girls cards said that I didn’t like.  I only had eyes for the one from the girl(s) that I had crushes on.  Those little slips of folded paper never revealed any romance, but it didn’t stop me from worrying about it every year.  Glad to see my neurosis was passed down.