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Roses are red, students are blue

Roses are red, students are blue
Graphic by Kelsey Shockey

It goes like this: if you’re in a relationship, your delight is nauseating. But, if you’re single and make light of the holiday, you’re bitter and lonely.

There’s no real winner here.

Back in elementary school, Valentine’s Day meant receiving personalized cards from every student in the class and wearing pink and red head-to-toe. It meant drugstore aisles devoted to candy hearts and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, to teddy bears and plush cartoon animals holding signs that read “I love you.”

However, in high school, Valentine’s Day is nothing of the sort.

While those in relationships generally participate in its traditions, the rest of the teenage population has mixed views on the holiday.

Abby Merlis ‘15 agrees that Valentine’s Day was treated as a much more an important occasion in elementary school.

“Now it’s more or less a normal school day,” Merlis said.

Similarly, Renee Reiner ‘15 enjoys the gift-exchange part of Valentine’s Day, but points out that students find the holiday more exciting if they have a significant other to share it with.

“I don’t really have any special plans for Valentine’s Day. I think I’m going to hang out with some friends, watch movies, and cry about being single,” Reiner joked.

Other students, however, choose to unleash their distaste for the holiday via social media.

All throughout the week, and especially the morning of, a plethora of “forever alone” jokes invade Twitter feeds and Tumblr dashboards, some unfortunately even finding their way onto Facebook and Instagram.

What would Valentine’s Day be without the tiresome “forever alone with 72 cats” comments and inevitable food jokes showcasing our good pals Ben and Jerry? Not to mention the indifferent “Isn’t-it-just-Friday” remarks and “Who-needs-love-when-you-have-Netflix” assertions.

It’s as though once a year, every February 14th, single high school students both celebrate and deprecate their aloneness. Valentine’s Day has become National Single Awareness Day during which students judge those in relationships, and those in relationships judge those who are not.

And while I don’t plan to take the cynical approach this Valentine’s Day, I’m certainly dreading to hear the phrase “forever alone” dropped in every conversation and twitter hashtag.

So, as they say: roses are red, violets are blue. I’m not excited for Valentine’s Day—how about you?

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About the Contributor
Daniela Karpenos, Web News Editor
Daniela Karpenos ’15, a dedicated member to Inklings, is not just an important part of the paper, but she is also very educated in the field of psychology. When Karpenos isn’t playing Tennis for Trumbull or the Wreckers, or organizing charity events for her temple youth board, or speaking Russian with her twin, or fulfilling her duties as Web News Editor of Inklings, she is working hard to become a well-studied psychology student. Karpenos has worked on Inklings for three years, and her senior year marks her first position on the paper. She took the Intro to Journalism class in freshman year and has been on the paper from sophomore all the way to senior year. She has progressively gotten more involved, as she started taking photos freshman year and worked her way up to a News Editor position this year. Karpenos is also passionate about psychology. She plans to major in Clinical Psychology when she goes to college. In the summer of 2014 she interned at the Yale Child Studies Center where she was entering and validating data. She also participated in an ongoing study about A.D.D. where Yale is attempting to develop a game that would help kids with A.D.D. focus better. In the summer of 2013, she went to the Yale Explo -- where she worked on her creative writing and studied psychology. It is clear that Karpenos is a dedicated learner and when asked about her career choices she said she wanted to pursue psychology and, “Although I don’t see myself in a journalism career I definitely will use skills I’ve developed here.”

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