Falling behind

From my point of view, Valentine's Day is filled with dreadful activities and cliché happenings. I've been a vitriolic girl, naive and foolish. As the clock struck twelve on the night of February 13th, Laufey's music resonated through my room while I stuffed cookies and cream ice cream into my mouth. As stated in one of her songs, "Falling Behind":

 

"'Cause the sun's engaged to the sky

And my best friend's found a new guy

I'm only getting older

I've never had a shoulder to cry on

Someone to call mine

Everybody's falling in love and I'm falling behind"

-Laufey

 

In my perplexed state, I often ask myself: When will I ever find someone? Why do we celebrate Valentine's Day in the first place? I've always felt like I was falling behind. What lies beneath the so-called "Araw ng mga Puso?" According to History.com:

 

February 14th is a holiday where people exchange gifts, flowers, and chocolates with their loved ones, and it's celebrated around the world.

 Valentine's Day - observed on 14th February every year - is steeped in history and has had remarkable yet diverse meanings over many centuries. It is both Christian celebrations as well as ancient Roman celebrations and changing societal values. This day is usually commemorated as the feast day of the Christian Saint Valentine, a Roman priest who traveled around martyrdom at 269 AD. Legends abound involving kindness and opposition to Roman persecution. There is still, however, an alternative argument claiming the date was deliberately picked to coincide with the pagan holiday Lupercalia. It involved a lottery coupling of women and men, a Roman fertility and purification festival, which perhaps had a bearing, too, on the coming romantic linkage in time. The final tie to romantic love arrived in the 14th and 15th centuries when courtly love developed, to be crowned in writing through Geoffrey Chaucer's "Parliament of Fowls," which had the first-known written mention of Valentine's Day as a romantic holiday.  

This shows the power of the continued human longing for connection and the rivulet between tradition and cultural change.

Growing up, I didn't have anyone—no shoulders to lean on. In my mind, I didn't

need a partner because of the clichés it presented. I grew up independently, facing every stumble, predicament, and hurdle alone. With all my might, I avoided anything romantic in my life. However, I've come to a realization. Love doesn't revolve solely around romantic things; it's more about our loved ones—family, friends, and acquaintances. Over the years of keeping a distance from affection, I met my only exception. I see a bright future with this person, and he's turned my pessimistic perspective upside down. At first, I was bewildered because I had sworn to myself that I would never fall in love. Amidst the chaos of numerous contradictions and perspectives about love, I am certain that I'm fond of this guy. I'll go beyond measures, embrace stepping outside my comfort zone to show that he is worth it. With his presence, I had a bliss celebrating Valentine this year. It felt like my favourite artist song

"You could wipe my mind

I'd still be stuck on you

I'd climb the heights

Nothing I wouldn't do

I'll be holding onto every word

Every promise that you ever heard

I'm making up for all the days

That passed us by"

-Grent perez

I was shown a little, beautifully made box. In it, there was a single flower—my

favorite. But this wasn't a regular flower; it was perfect, impossibly perfect in my view. Every petal was precisely shaped, a testament to the careful, tender fingers that had formed it. Knowing it, I felt the connection with the poem/song of my favorite artist, the bare vulnerability, the cringing hope hanging onto each line. It wasn't a typical gift; it was a rendering of that poem into something real, a wordless repetition of its passion. It was an unnoticeable vocabulary, spoken not in words, but in the subtle geometry of a flower. A secret, I understood now, even total forgetfulness on my part could not remove. The flower remained, a burst of color, a haunting figure, a reminder of a vow that overrode the limitations of the mind itself. It was an ascent, a vow fulfilled, an unspoken, humbling declaration.

Reference 

Http://www.blogger.com

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/cupid-funny-memes-by-harini-prathapasinghe--605804587386763609/

https://www.tamizharmedia.com/?7694704=25_145034

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/funny-valentines-heart-cat-meme--453245150005200723/