I am wondering right now if I am the only person who isn't feeling the Valentine vibe yet in Nigeria because the hype isn't like it used to be. There use to be event hosted by different companies and people to celebrate the day but not anymore. I want to believe that a lot of Nigerians have more pressing issues to attend to than celebrating Valentine since the year is it very fresh and the country's situation isn't smiling.
February 14th used to be very important to me but not anymore since I learned that just one day is not enough to express or celebrate love and moreover it's my birth month and I always celebrate myself the best I should. Celebrating our loved ones should be something we do everyday and not just occasionally like a lot of people do.
Additionally, I celebrated my silver age a few days and it's fine that my perspective about so many things have shifted positively.
People with this mentality of mine are often referred to as someone who is brokenhearted but that's not the case. I am deeply in love with someone matured enough to know that everyday is a celebration of what we feel and shared which is amazing.
However, I have lots of beautiful Valentine's Day celebration experiences and will share my first ever Valentine story. I have tried forgetting this a lot of time but can't because it's special just like Hive-naija requested.
I was the slimmest girl in the senior that year and didn't have a boyfriend like my mates do. I have males friends but having a boyfriend wasn't a priority so I was fine with being a high school single.
Nobody finds me attractive and Valentine would always made me wish I had a boyfriend because of the gift my mates exchanged. Some even go out after school to have fun and I was always like, "God, am I an umbrella?"
I often watch my mates unbox their gifts and it's always fun but the experience is far from what I can imagine. My life continued the same way until SS3 and I thought Valentine in senior school will never happen unknown to my that I already had a crush.
Surprisingly, he wasn't even in my class. He was my junior in class but older and I didn't know what he saw that made him chose me. I didn't know until Feb 14th when he approached me during the lunch break and stretched a small box to me.
I stood there staring at him and I wasn't pretending not to know what he meant. You can blame my lack of experience for that and immediately I had a clue, I became shy.
"It is how it feels?" I thought and just took the box. I tried to wear a pretty small but my dry chin wouldn't make that happen.
I stood still for a few minutes listening to this sweet soul and when he mentioned his class, I lost interest immediately. Trust me, I didn't return the gift since I don't know when the next one would come.
I hid the gift from my classmates and friends to avoid any interrogation and before the day ran out, I concluded in meeting him to say thank you which I did. We walked out of the school together chatting, we had sachets yoghurt and donuts. It wasn't much of typical Valentine's Day celebration but it was my first and I believe it's special.
We became good friends but never dated because my education was a priority me. It's been years and that day we always anticipated now feels like a normal day.