Be The Valentine They Are

My feed, be it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, is filled to the brim with Valentine's Day love, or more accurately, Valentine's Day thirst.

When I was in school, I had slight anticipation for Valentine's. Namely because the clubs sold special treats which is delivered to the recipients class, so you could be agonized throughout the day waiting for your treat to come from your special someone. Of course, it may just be a silly prank your friends pulled off you (trust me, I've done it myself), or it could just be a heartwarming message from your friend. But usually the pretty ones get loads of presents and me, usually none. So my anticipation was mostly based on me getting to eat my friends' treats. Yeah.

I remember when I was in Form 1 (13 years old), I remember seeing a Form 5 girl from morning session leave the school with a huge bouquet of flowers and tailing behind her, was her friend holding a bunch of presents and a teddy bear for her (I assume it was the girl holding the flowers as the bouquet caused her hands to be full). So my witnessing probably nurtured my anticipation for Valentine's Day since then. You can read all about adolescent hormonal Noel during Valentine's 2012 here: I RANTED ABOUT MY STALKERS AND CAM-WH*RED (Slightly unrelated to the topic here but it gives you a picture of Valentine's Day in SMK SK)


But now that I have left school and the hormonal rush has reduced (slightly), Valentine's Day to me is just an opportunity for other people to make money off you in this Lovey-duvvey, mushy-wushy season. 

 And I suppose you should really celebrate this event in the name of true love, even if you don't have a true love at the moment. 

Which is why I dug through some of my parents' old photographs. 

The story of how my parents met each other is actually a rather bizarre and  funny story. A story that I will leave until another time. 

But the story of my parents marriage I suppose I can tell now.  

Look how dorky they are

 My parents got married on the eve of Valentine's Day. I don't really know why they chose it, but it just so happened. As it is now, 13th of February 1993 was also during the Chinese New Year period. They had a proper Catholic church wedding where my grandfather gave my mother away. Then after that they had the Chinese wedding thing where they invited family and friends to feast. Pretty much the usual stuff. 

But the most unusual part was that my parents refused to do a wedding photoshoot because my Mum said: 'It's such a waste of money and time to hire a photographer to shoot us. The fuss is not worth it. And what happens to the wedding photos in the end? They end up hidden, under the bed. It's just not worth it." Instead, they put on their wedding suit and dress, and started photographing each other at their new house, which is the house that we are still currently living in.  

And I even found a selfie among other odd photos. My parents took a selfie 21 years ago as part of their wedding 'photoshoot'.  My parents are so cool. 

So today marks the 21st anniversary of my parents. I asked them what they were going to do, they just shrugged and blew it off. They never really celebrate it anyway. 

I want to end this post with some words of wisdom from my Mum:

"  Getting married isn't about the grand event on the wedding day. Getting married is living together with a with a person for the rest of your life. " 

Have a great Valentine's.

 Trying To Learn From My Parents Angel