Contributor

Is there anything to celebrate on Valentine’s Day?

It’s the day when vans and trucks fan out to schools, offices, and homes across the country.

They carry the manifestation of our culturally approved affections, typically from men to women.

The women practice their reaction of surprise, embarrassment, and joy when the delivery comes.

The men secretly rehearse a nonchalant grin, masking their satisfaction at gaining approval.

All this daydreamt anticipation then comes to fruition on the fourteenth.

At some level, most adults are aware that Valentine’s Day is largely a creation of those that sell carnations, confections, and greeting cards.

It’s a way to prop up sagging sales between Christmas and Easter. It’s marketed as a celebration of idealized romantic love, the kind of love can only be expressed in white lettering against pink cardboard.

As dreamy as it is, this holiday also comes with a warning.

Only with trinkets can you expect to achieve this level of bliss. Only with tokens can you hope to keep your mate satisfied.

There is nothing new about advertising using worry and fear as motivators, though it is particularly crass to imply that the health of a romantic relationship might rest on buying some piece of jewelry.

But Zales and Hallmark make this hard sell only a few times a year.

Everyday is Valentine’s Day for drug companies, who are all too happy to make you sane, thin, and attractive.

Never mind that our jobs run us ragged while paying less money, that much of our food is garbage, that the human relationships we see again and again in our media are reduced to shallow caricatures.

Any depression, loneliness, or insecurity you feel is an illness, a chemical imbalance. We are Americans, after all, autonomous individuals, unaffected by our society.

And that insecurity, that fear is precisely the wedge that drives us and keeps us apart much of the time, perhaps more so for college students than others.

So much emphasis is placed on ‘my’ own achievement, my grades, my performance, my appearance, my career. Many of us will never be as freely self-centered as we are during our time here at school.

Answers are supposedly found by looking inward at the expense of looking outward.

Even as we walk the halls of this shrine to the ego, there are some few who try to bridge the gulf between us.

The deck is surely stacked against them. When people are plagued with insecurities, when our culture cherishes individualism, when people all around us forgo community, career, and family for self-satisfaction, it’s amazing that anyone bothers to build intimate relationships at all.

In fact, you might say it is worthy of a holiday.

Staff Artist

Ahhh, Valentine’s Day.

For the many cynics, the worst day of the year—the day when they are constantly reminded of their “singleness.”

Everyone’s in love, everyone’s happy, everybody’s sending or receiving flowers and running around happy-go-lucky.

The way I see it, you can take Valentine’s Day several ways.

Hate it, tolerate it, or try to get through it. But there’s another option: Enjoy it.

Pink, red, and white everywhere you look. Love songs playing on the radio, cards displayed in the halls, mushy talk on the phone, it’s all practically a drug.

There is something about love, whether I’m in it or not, that is infectious. Being single on Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be a shit show. It’s all on how you perceive it.

Who says that it has to be all about romantic love?

Take the time to make a Valentine for your grandma, or call up a friend and tell them how much you love them. Or for that matter, lavish on yourself for a day… love yourself.

Buy a cute shirt, take yourself and a friend out to dinner or have a bro fest (just to remind guys that Valentine’s can be a manly day). This holiday doesn’t have to be such a downer.

In fact, the origins of the holiday root back to a Latin festival called Lupercal, in which all the bachelors would grab women’s names out of an urn and pair off for the day.

It also involved those men running around naked touching people with goat hide strips for fertility.

And hey, who says this tradition is dated?

Boys, if you’re feeling a little crazy this February 14, maybe you should run around touching people with goat hide strips. Of course, be prepared for some significant opposition… but it sure would be a great story, right?

So whether you’re celebrating with a loved one, by yourself or a big group of friends, know that Valentine’s Day is for love, not just people that are married or dating. Throw on some “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” or Nat King Cole and learn to love love.

Contributor

It started out as a case of mistaken identity. It soon developed into a friendship. And after a magical date on a snowy day off from school, it blossomed into the love of a lifetime.

Sierra Radford, a junior in health communications, first met Blake Keaster, a junior in cell and molecular biology, purely by mistake one day during a class.

In fact, Sierra thought she was talking to someone else when she first met Blake. She had a class with Drew Keaster, Blake’s identical twin, so when she saw Drew’s look-alike sitting in another one of her classes, she went over to say hello. She soon realized her mistake, but it was the start of a wonderful friendship.

Flash forward a couple of months later, and Blake finally gained the nerve to ask Sierra out, inviting her to a dance in Garst cafeteria where a live band was performing. Whether it was the music or the fact that he told her he “was a ladies’ man,” Blake convinced her to come back with him to a friend’s birthday party.

“We went and played in the snow,” Sierra recalled. The next day Missouri State cancelled classes, so they went out to play again, this time just the two of them.

That first snow date happened a little over two years ago, but their relationship has quickly escalated into something lasting.

On July 4, 2008, Blake got on one knee to ask Sierra to marry him. He was “nervous,” though, not because he questioned her response, but because he “didn’t want to drop the ring in the lake,” he said.

“I took her out on the lake at night,” Blake explained.

Sierra had come to visit Blake and their friends in his hometown of Mountain Home, Arkansas. She enjoyed his choice of proposal. “It was almost midnight,” she said. “It was nice because no one else was on the lake.”

Although the proposal was an exciting night for Sierra, a few clues gave away the surprise. “I knew it was coming,” she explained.

She had suspected some kind of plan when Blake continually insisted that she come that specific night to Mountain Home after work, rather than the next morning. Moreover, the fireworks show their friends scheduled at the lake had been called off because Sierra hadn’t arrived, making her yet more aware that plans were revolving around her.

The wedding will take place in Rolla, Missouri, Sierra’s hometown, at the ballroom where she had her high school prom. “I’m in up to my neck planning stuff,” she said.

As far as their families go, Sierra explained that “(Blake’s) mom originally didn’t want him to (marry) until after dental school.” But both families seem to be nothing but excited now that the engagement has taken place. “They’re both good with it, happy about it,” Sierra said.

Why do the two love each other?

“Despite the fact that I’m mad at him…” Sierra started, joking. “He can always make me laugh.

“Sometimes it makes me madder.”.

For Blake, one of his favorite things about Sierra is how “talkative” she is. “It works well because she talks, and I listen,” he explained. Not to mention, she’s “stunningly good looking.” Plus, “She’s funny,” he said. “I like that I can be myself around her—be nerdy and play video games.”

Not everything is perfect, though.

“He’s the world’s worst procrastinator,” Sierra said. “He plays video games all the time.”

Blake was not quote so ready to disclose any fault in his fiancee, though.

“What can I say here and not get in trouble?” he said jokingly, before answering his own question. “Nothing bothers me about Sierra.”

The couple recalled many enjoyable memories, but not everything has been easy for them the past couple of years. Since they come from two different towns, they spend their summers at their own homes. “Being apart in the summer—that was really hard for us,” Sierra explained.

The summer after they first started dating, they tried to see each other every couple of weeks.

A time came, though, when they wouldn’t see each other for about a month because of work and vacation conflicts. One evening after Blake got off of work, he left for Rolla at 5 p.m., stayed a few hours after he arrived until midnight, then drove back home to be at work for the next morning at 8 a.m.

Sierra recalled it as one of the sweetest things he’d done for her, all of it “because he wanted to see me,” she said.

Valentine’s Day quickly approaches, but the wedding seems to remain their only priority on the planning list. Valentine’s day is “his job,” Sierra said.

“We could go rock climbing,” Blake suggested, one of their many hobbies together. Sierra just shook her head.

Apparently the plans remain undecided. Whatever they decide to do for Valentine’s Day, though, they will definitely have a good time. “We have fun,” Blake said. “We laugh a lot.”