Do you guys remember Valentine’s Day back in highschool? I do! And that shit cracks me up every time because I NEVER got any fucking roses, chocolates or cards, I was that kid.
No wait, I did get the one rose once from a girl in matric, but otherwise the whole thing was a gigantic waste of time for me. I went in with low expectations and was never disappointed because I am cursed.
Valentine’s Day and I have never been friends. The best Valentine’s Day I spent was at The Doors in Joburg where they released a gigantic net of red and white balloons that the crowd obliterated with Rammstein blasting in the background.
I can count the number of romantic, candle-lit Valentine’s Days I’ve spent gazing lovingly into a girl’s eyes while a suitably cheesy song (cue Chris DeBurgh’s “Lady In Redâ€) plays in the background on one hand.
That was all before J-Rab and I started dating though. Now Valentine’s Day has taken on a whole new meaning for me. Now I have someone to share my contempt for it with!
Come October this year, J-Rab and I will have been dating for six years and you know how many Valentine’s Days we’ve spent together? Motherflippin’ TWO! Hahahaha!
First two years we were living in different continents (long story), the year after that J-Rab had just moved to Cape Town and I was still packing up the flat in Joburg, the next two were the ones we spent together and this year, she’s in the UK and I’m here.
The first one we actually spent together was awesome. We both felt so much pressure to make the best of it, our very first Valentine’s Day together that it flopped spectacularly and ended with both of us fully acknowledging that Valentine’s Day is a total load of shit.
“But it’s not about the flowers or the cards or the chocolates!†I hear you all say, “Don’t buy into the commercial bullshit, Valentine’s Day is about celebrating your love for one another!â€
I get that all the time when I explain J-Rab and my total disinterest in Valentine’s Day but I just nod and smile.
Real love celebrates itself spontaneously and without restraints or expectations. It flows in abundance, never running dry, never relying on anything outside itself to fill itself. It is selfless and pure and is communicated in a language that is timeless, wordless and powerful enough to change the world.
Right back when J-Rab and I first started seeing one another I remember asking my old lady how the hell J-Rab and I were ever going to close the continental space between us, whether it was even worth trying.
My old lady said to me, “If it was meant to be, it will be. Love can move mountains†and God bless her, she was right.
Back then J-Rab would often joke that I was the best mistake she ever made.
So this one’s for you babe, Happy Valentine’s Day (um, probably just listen to the song and don’t watch the actual video because yeah, clearly Sheryl’s choreographer was sick that day…)
To love.
To the real deal 
-ST
