Celebrate Valentine's Day like you did when you were little

It's that time of year again. When pinks and reds blossom from every store shelf, and candy hearts snow gently to the ground. When Godiva hauls out every 14 pound heart-shaped chocolate box to put out on display. When envelopes covered with kisses mysteriously appear on people's doorsteps.

All of this irritates me. I used to enjoy Valentine's Day and celebrated the holiday with the utmost gusto. To properly honor St. Valentine, I'd wear pink and red all day long and happily gorge myself with sweets. But when I finally learned that the supposed "true" meaning of Valentine's Day was not to eat chocolate until your blood ran thick with the confection, I stopped the yearly celebrations. After all, Valentine's Day no longer had any meaning.

I still cringe whenever the jingle "Every kiss begins with 'Kay'" slowly tinkles from the TV, reminding me how cheap and trite the holiday has become. Granted, many holidays are now only commercial ventures, but that does not right the wrong. Valentine's Day is not a day of buying love but of giving love.

I believe the time is now ripe for change. We all need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that Valentine's Day can be celebrated only by amorous lovers exchanging 24 karat gold necklaces and realize that the holiday is for everyone. We need to stop heaving lonely sighs whenever we walk by couples holding hands. We need to accept that today's meaning of Valentine's Day has been tainted, and relive its meaning as we all once did as children.

We need to eat chocolate and sweets until we can no longer move.

Though there exist a few too-healthy beings who would obstinately but politely turn away such an idea, for the majority of us, that would be very a worthwhile Valentine's Day.

Firstly, wasting money to buy rocks to hang on your significant other's neck or earlobes does not bring the term "civilized," much less "loving," to mind. Why invest in shiny trinkets when you could more wisely spend your money on far more precious and fine commodities, such as cheesecake or chocolate-covered pretzels?

Secondly, having your gift rejected is quite an embarrassing and painful experience, and Valentine's Day is not the time for that to happen. Instead of having to suffer the indescribable embarrassment of returning an untouched diamond ring to the jewelers, give gifts of toffee sprinkled with chocolate and nuts or freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, which are rarely refused. Even if they are rejected, console yourself knowing that you at least can use the gift for chocolate tastes far better than diamonds.

This Valentine's Day, stop wishing you could celebrate and start celebrating. Go buy yourself a whole chocolate cake and savor every moment, starting from when you carefully cut into the moist chocolately goodness to when you place the rich, creamy delight into your mouth, finally experiencing a bit of true love on Valentine's Day.

Anna Huang is a freshman from Westlake, Ohio.