It’s supposed to be the thought that counts.
But sometimes gifts on Valentine’s Day require a little more than just the thought.
Kristine Hillary, a senior in English, is still waiting for someone to be romantic on Valentine’s Day.
“I’m not shallow, but I always seem to get my hopes up that my boyfriend will be romantic on Valentine’s Day,” Hillary said. “To this day, no one has ever done anything really romantic. Sadly, either I’m picking the wrong men, or even worse, I’m just not worth the effort.”
Hillary recalled a Valentine’s Day a few years ago when she was anxiously waiting for the first Valentine’s Day with her boyfriend at the time.
“We had been dating for seven months, so I had high hopes,” she said. “Visions of red roses and Godiva chocolates swam in my head.”
When Hillary received the hollow chocolate Garfield her boyfriend had spent next to no effort on, she said her illusions were shattered, to say the least. Hillary still gave her boyfriend at the time the benefit of the doubt, and waited out another year to see if he could make up for the Garfield incident.
“The following year was even worse,” she said. “He knew some kid who was selling ‘singing Valentines’ and I got a phone call of someone singing Whitney Houston off key,” Hillary remembered. “It was terrible!”
Although Hillary wasn’t surprised when the couple didn’t last another Valentine’s Day, she said she took at least one lesson from the experience about Valentine’s gifts.
“It’s not about the price, it’s about the thought behind it,” she said.
For Carley Haber, a senior in Spanish, originality is key.
“Most of the gifts I have [received] have been unoriginal,” Haber said.
For Haber, flowers and balloons just don’t cut it.
“Flowers are so unoriginal,” she said. “Everyone and their brother buy flowers on Valentine’s Day.”
Haber recalled balloons being amongst the worse gift she has received on the day of love.
“They’re just the stupidest gift,” she said. “They deflate in like a day, and they just sit there … they don’t even do anything.”
