"Let's Get Cheesy" by Elena Goodrow

It’s Valentine's Day! A day full of chocolates, flowers, and love. Although, if you’re anything like me you may think this holiday is a bit silly. It’s really just a way to get people to spend money and to make single people feel lonely, right? I tend to have a slightly cynical perspective on life, especially when I was a kid. Everyone told me I wasn’t going to live very long and I had decided silly holidays weren’t worth spending my time on. They are cheesy, expensive, unnecessary, the list goes on. Well… as I’ve gotten a bit older I have grown soft to cheesy holidays. Life is full of hard days filled with chores, cooking, treatments, doctor appointments, and other unpleasant activities. Now I think that a cheesy holiday, like Valentine’s Day, is an easy excuse to do something different or treat yourself. Get some chocolates that are the exact same ones you usually buy, except they are dyed red and served in a heart shaped box. Get a beautiful bouquet of flowers to enjoy, even if they wilt quickly. Whether you are in a relationship or not, any holiday can be a chance to switch up the routine of life that we fall so quickly into. 

This Valentine’s Day is the first time in my whole life that I went and bought a bunch of silly stuff at Walmart. I got cards, chocolates, chocolate roses, balloons, heart shaped sparklers, “lotto” scratchers that reveal compliments, candy, and more. Sure, maybe this is just a ploy for big companies to make money during otherwise slow parts of the year. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun, right? This year I made the goal to truly embrace the cheesy parts of life, and I encourage you to do the same. It doesn’t have to mean raiding Walmart’s seasonal aisle or celebrating a holiday, it can simply mean allowing yourself to enjoy each and every day for what it has to offer.