It's that time of year again — flowers, chocolates, and giant stuffed animals are populating stores like wildfire, signaling the annual return of Valentine's Day.
I'm not going to lie, I love the holiday to death. The first year I spent it with my now-fiance, we had brunch first thing in the morning, saw two movies in theaters, went to a local Greek festival and exchanged lots of sugary sweet homemade presents. The year after that, we went to Disney World and spent the first half of the day at Magic Kingdom and the second half wandering through the World Showcase at Epcot.
This will be our third year together, and it's likely that if we had a choice, we would plan another big celebration to mark the day — but we aren't, because we can't. Conflicting work schedules have put us in a situation where we won't be able to see each other at all on Valentine's Day, and we have extremely limited time during the rest of the week as well. This year, we won't really be celebrating Valentine's Day...and that's okay.
While I am a hardcore fan of the holiday, and I think it's great to have a day dedicated to showing a little extra love toward your partner, I also think you can celebrate your relationship any other day during the year. Our schedules for the semester have made it so pretty much all of the time we spend together entails vegging out on the couch eating takeout. In fact, I probably won't have a chance to go on a full-scale date with my fiance until spring break in mid-March. Whenever we get the chance, we will definitely spend a day focusing entirely on each other — and it won't be any less meaningful just because it isn't in February.
Life is going to happen, and it's more likely than not that as the years go on, we will have plenty of Valentine's Days where we can't celebrate. Sure, I'm a little sad that I won't be one of the millions of girls being taken out to dinner on February 14th, but I know that it's just the way things worked out this year. My fiance and I still love each other every bit as much as we would if we were going out this week.
Enjoy your day if you're celebrating, but if you aren't, remember that it's just another day of the year. All of the things that are associated with Valentine's Day can be transferred to another day. If you write your partner a love letter or buy him or her something special in June, it will mean every bit as much as it does in February. Do whatever works for your relationship and your schedule. Don't let the calendar rule your life.
