Ever since I was a little girl, I have adored Valentine’s Day. I remember the shoe boxes on our tables at elementary school when everyone got the same card, but you’d secretly slip your crush an extra piece of candy as you walked the room. Once we got to the age of candy and cards not being mandatory, buying roses and candy grams for each other became a choice, and my imaginary shoe box fell empty many times. My friends would buy each other those candy grams, and I always felt lesser as they joked about the amount they got. At a young age, I measured my worth by what others thought of me. My empty shoebox drove me crazy.

However, as I got older, I realized I could fill the empty shoebox. I buy myself flowers, I treat myself to coffee in the morning, and I read my bible in the sunlight any chance I get. Valentine’s Day was never a day to spend money on each other or make people feel lonely, but to honor and appreciate love. As I reflect on my sixteenth- if you don’t count my second-grade boyfriend- single Valentine’s Day, I have realized I have honored and appreciated love by finding worth in myself rather than what I was given. Although I can’t say, my box has spider webs in it, as my father bought me flowers and chocolates. Anyways- when strangers walked by me with a bouquet of flowers and a significant other at their side, I could not help but smile for them; as I know how love feels, and I know it because I have it within me