Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentines

It's amazing what can happen for your mood when you decide to do something for other people.

Instead of getting all moody and focusing on all the couples that I'm surrounded by, I decided to surprise a bunch of strangers.

I had ordered four balloons and a treat bag from a group on campus for Valentine's Day, but due to the crazy weather this week, they couldn't get the balloons filled with helium, so instead I got two treat bags and $4 back.  I didn't know what to do with them, and I'm trying to cut back on the sugar I eat, so voila, the idea was born.

I was in the Student Center for lunch and killing time before French class, and I kept looking around trying to decide who to give them to.  I saw two guys sitting at a table chatting, so I just walked up, put the treat bags on the table and said, "Here, Happy Valentine's Day."  I thought it was weird that they said, "Thank you, Miss" until I saw them leave with Army bookbags on their back...I definitely picked the right people.  There's no one I'd rather randomly bless than two soldiers.

Despite the fact that I literally have twenty cents to my name right now, I looked at those 4 one dollar bills in my purse, and I just didn't want to stop giving stuff away.  So I got up, walked up to four random people and didn't say a word to them other than "Happy Valentine's Day".  The looks of shock on their faces were totally worth how awkward I must have looked.

And then I remembered this Starbucks gift card that I got last summer in a blog giveaway.  And I remembered that I used it once and it's been sitting in my wallet untouched ever since.  So I pulled it out, and walked up to this couple sitting at a table, asked them if they liked Starbucks, and gave it to the girl when she said yes.  I told her there was about $16 on it, said Happy Valentine's Day and walked away.  The two of them kept looking over at me for the next five minutes, as did their friend when she walked over  It was all I could do not to laugh, because I don't think they noticed I saw them looking at me.

I'm not writing this to have anyone tell what a wonderful thing it was that I did.  I'm writing this because this was, hands down, the best Valentine's Day I've ever had. And it amazes me and makes me laugh that surprising 7 strangers with 2 $3 treat bags, $4, and a gift card I wasn't using anyway was all it took.  It amazes me that a situation that looks like me blessing 7 random people was actually a huge blessing for me, too, possibly an even bigger blessing than it was for them.  I get a huge grin on my face every time I think about it because it was so much fun.  And doing it made me really think about the fact that you don't have to be in a relationship to show love to people on this day, and that not being in a relationship doesn't make me any less valuable today or any other day of the year.

Happy Valentine's Day, people.  I hope someone told you they loved you today, even if they did it without words.

post signature

No comments:

Post a Comment