why i hate valentine's day

it started when i was in high school. little did i know from when i was a child in grade school that i would "hate" this day. as it was, i always buy little heart to pin on my collar, hoping that one day (or that day), i would find my valentine. it never came to be - not even in high school when i thought (and even my classmates thought that it was) that i have someone special.

so it all started when my literature teacher decided that for once, we will take a break from class and have a little go-round of flowers for that special person in the class - of course, from the opposite sex. we were asked to form one big circle and each person should pass the rose to another classmate of the opposite sex and this one should give the flower to another person. no repeats should be made. so on and on it went, until the guy everybody thought would give the flowers to me, gave the flower to someone else. i was -- hmmm, i wasn't sure what i felt that time -- maybe disappointed but i didn't lose hope because i have other guy friends who could give me the flower when they realized i've never received it yet... on and on it went until i realized, almost everybody had received the flower except for two people -- me and another girl. that was a very disappointing blow - to my heart and my pride. i felt so down, i felt so depressed, i felt so unloved. yet, i kept quiet because i didn't want to cry over a plain flower.

at the end of the class, as i was talking to my girl friends about it, my close guy friends heard what happened and were aghast to realize what had happened. all the while, with all the excitement and confusion over the flower giving, they all thought that this particular guy had given me the flower because they knew that he "liked" me but it never happened. we can't bring back the time. i had to live with it (at least, the other girl had to live with it too!).

that particular valentine day, i was so sad that all i thought about was going home.

but always, always, there's a little silver lining waiting for you. when i arrived home, there was a small flower candy waiting for me -- courtesy of my mom. she didn't know what happened, but it was a blessing, a gift that i won't forget.