Puppy love. No, not that kind

Before even thinking about the ‘special’ Valentine’s Day edition of Felix I can, with a certainty of about 99.99% say that we will be reading loads of complaints about it being just another one of those capitalist holidays. I both agree and disagree with this – Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be a ‘holiday’ – especially since I happen to dislike chocolates. You should show the people you care for that you do so every day of the year.

The last two Valentine’s Days are the only ones I can still remember quite well and both were spent with my best friend(s). One of them was visiting me in London back in 2009 and last year I went home for a gig by one of my favourite ex-Yugo rock bands. You see, Valentine’s Day is no special thing in that part of the world – it happens to be just another day in February that comes and goes just like any other. You get the odd western fanatic that celebrates it with his girlfriend as a “tribute of their love”, but in reality, those same people break up less than a month after (and then get back together again, only to break up yet another time…gosh, make up your minds!).

Moreover, heart-shaped chocolate boxes and flowers are not sold more on the 14th of February than on any other day. I also still haven’t noticed the clichéd red roses being delivered everywhere I go (nevertheless, these happen to be my favourite flowers).

Now, I did not always live in Sarajevo and you all know what happens when you start digging up your shoebox of primary school memories – the best and worst (read: most embarrassing) stories come up. The same thing happened this time when I dug up a folded red heart shaped “Secret Valentine’s Day” card I happened to receive when I was 7.

Back then, I was in 2nd grade of an Elementary School near Boston and well, our teacher thought it would be amusing to assign us all to be someone’s secret Valentine. She told each of us to make a creative gift or card for a certain person. I still remember being seated on the floor and Ms Quillen handing out each of our gifts to the designated valentine. Once she’d hand it out, she’d reveal to us the name of our Secret Valentine. My name came up and in a matter of seconds I was holding the biggest heart-shaped card with “You are my Valentine” written in white childish writing on the outside and the classical love poem inside:

Roses are Red,

_Violets are Blue, _

This Valentine may supposedly be secret,

But I truly do love you.

And alas, to top that, my crush happened to be the one whose hands made that card. He had deep blue eyes and exceptionally white teeth – something I admire up to this day. He was a bit chubby – but we all know how cute that can be. I think my cheeks turned as red as that card (it certainly felt so).

Anyways, back to the point – Valentine’s happens to be just another day of the year and if you do happen to want to share a special day with someone you love – friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, family member or pet, don’t hesitate to do so. Maybe they might write an article in Felix 14 years after wondering where you happen to be in the world.