We’ve all made it!
We’re past Valentine’s Day and I sure hope it was an enjoyable one for you. Whether it was you staying home and watching a phenomenal dunk contest, or missing everything for the sake of dinner…I do hope it was well spent. All jokes aside though, my weekend left me in a great place. I ended up reminiscing about what I considered to be a “lost” Valentine’s Day. I thought it would be pretty good to add this story to my Valentine’s Day Chronicles 2 years after its inception.
Initially the chronicles began just to give my readers an idea of different things they could do for Valentine’s Day. The 3 previous stories speak about 3 different experiences. They range from classy dinners, to sultry evenings, to Netflix and chill before it was a thing. Those previous stories are here for your reading pleasure.
This is the 4th installment of the Valentine’s Day Chronicles.
I’m taking you back to the year 2007. I’m taking you back to a time where I hadn’t even started writing like this as yet. E&J was most of my contemporaries’ middle name. College Hill Virgin Islands was a big deal. Twitter wasn’t even thought of. I was 18 years old and I was experiencing love for the first time. Allow me to paint the picture, take this walk down memory lane with me.
In 2007 I was in the spring semester of my freshman year of college. At the time I met one of the most unique women I had ever met. She’s just as unique today as she was then. At that time it was just fresh. I couldn’t get enough of how well we clicked. She was one of the few women at that time that showed me how much more there was to them beyond just their looks. She took pride in her work. She had an amazing sense of humor. The chemistry we had I thought was infectious. Anyone could see it who was around us back then.
It was only right that this amazing person I had been seeing would be my valentine that year. It turned out that she would be and for the first time ever, I would be putting in effort for Valentine’s Day. So at this time there was a girl I was friends with named Elizabeth. She was a freshman as well and with her we went to trust Broadway Mall in Long Island. I wanted a woman with me just to sort of give me a barometer as to how well I was doing. So I decided that I would keep things very simple.
I knew that this particular Valentine’s Day a blizzard would be on its way.
I knew that we wouldn’t have class so I knew if nothing else we would spend the day together. I picked up 3 items from the mall. I bought a card and typed a note in it for her. I really can’t remember what I said, but I’m pretty sure it was lit. I also bought her a small heart shaped pillow that read “I love you” across it. Lastly, I bought her a box of her favorite chocolates which were Ferrero Rocher. I thought I did a pretty good job as a broke college student.
I just knew that the sentimental trinkets I bought would have the coolest impression.
I imagined Valentine’s Day being just me and her. We would be snowed in kicking it and playing Halo. The gifts went over great. They went over well mainly because she wasn’t expecting anything. She really wasn’t the type. So she says her thank you’s, we didn’t get to the Halo or anything as yet. The 18 year old me thought that with it being V-Day and all that after gifts and romantic sweet nothings that we would be ferociously hitting the skins after. That wasn’t the case after all. Aunt Flo was present and at the top of her game. So I was a bit bummed out about that. But whatever! I was in love right?
Certainly we would spend quality time. Right?
Certainly being that we were into each other as much as we were, it was the most logical thing. That didn’t quite happen. There were some fellas I knew that lived diagonally across the hall from me. They were cool with shorty and knew her well. Many times she would party with them or just stop by to say hey. All of those times were fine with me. But on V-Day I wasn’t too excited about it. She went across the hall which wasn’t strange at all; but she stayed for hours hanging out! That was something that had never happened before.
Here I was thinking that the day was ours. Snowed in, we would be in cuddle city! No? Guess that was just me. She came back to the room and I gave her what I can only compare to the Kobe death stare. I was furious and felt damn near insulted. I guess at the time she just didn’t get it. She was oblivious to how I viewed the day and the prominence it had in my mind.
It was the first Valentine’s Day I had experienced where I actually cared.
I went through prior V-Days not getting anyone anything but receiving gifts. So in my first meaningful holiday, this first experience was whack. She knew my frustrations and apologized. It was what it was.
I thought you all would enjoy a not so perfect story of the Valentine’s Day Chronicles. We all experience sour moments. My love life has never been perfect as none of ours really are. I write this to show that the previous chronicles are all after this story. This part 4 is a prequel. There is always hope. Things do get better. It takes some low points to enjoy the high points and operate in them accordingly. I hope you all dug it. What are some of your less than stellar Valentine’s Day stories? Let’s get into it.
These are my words and I make no apologies.
DamnPops is a writer and podcaster on the staff at SBM: “I’m not a biter, I’m a writer for myself and others. ” Follow me on Twitter @DamnPOPS and @NegroPPodcast . Also, subscribe on iTunes to the Negro Please Podcast and visit our website here!