Have A Happy and Different Valentines Day This Year

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Whether or not you’re prepared for it, it’s coming.

For me, Vday is a whole different world than what it is for most people. I work as a florist and spend the week around Vday working 12-15 hours each day, sometimes more. When I get home after the day is over, I just ask of my partner to have dinner ready for me or to give me a quick massage and then put me to bed. It’s all I really have the energy for.

Besides, working as a florist has made me come to realise that Valentine’s Day is all about consumerism. And not just normal, everyday consumerism, but an out-of-this-world-you-must-spend-hundreds-of-dollars-on-roses sort of consumerism.

I feel an incredible amount of pity for all the men who fork out half their week’s pay for a bunch of roses. They feel pressured to do so because, well, it’s Valentine’s Day and you’re expected to get roses. The thing is, roses these days are manufactured in either South Africa or Columbia, and then shipped all over the world for this special day. They are cut at least a week before the time the florist gets them, and in that time they have gone through a plane trip where they weren’t put into water for hours, just frozen. Once the florist prepares and then sells the roses to these guys, they’re at least a week or two old and will only have a vase life of 5-7 days, if lucky.

But, because there are no other options given to a guy besides the formula of flowers romantic dinner chocolate=Valentine’s Day, they end up invariably buying roses that only last a few days.

This all leaves me wondering – where is the romance? Why is it only one day a year that we’re meant to shower our loved one and why does it have to be something that involves a lot of money and no imagination?

There should be a holiday every year called ‘write your loved one a poem day’ or ‘give your friend a hug day’ or something cheesy and lovely like that, because frankly, the old Valentine’s Day cliché is just a little boring.

So if you’re going to be celebrating Vday with a loved one this year, go ahead and do it. But maybe think about other things you can do that go outside the box. I guarantee that if you create a scrapbook of photos of the two of you they will be much more impressed than if you shell out wads of cash for flowers.



#_Valentine
#_Different
#_Romance
#_Money


%trulyheart