DAILY SUNDIAL

I’ve been getting the question for weeks, and I’ve got a set answer that works for everyone, regardless of their age, gender or how much they’re looking forward to the day in question. I can’t help but wonder why everyone cares what everyone else does for Valentine’s Day.

My response? “I’ll be in a four-hour graphics class. It’s hot, I know.”

My parents will sound vaguely disappointed, and I know that I’ll eventually regret the slip I made in front of them that revealed I was dating someone. So many people are telling me to skip class, which I normally wouldn’t even need a reason to do. But even then I steadfastly refuse to blow off academics. It was then that I knew I had a problem – blowing off Valentine’s Day when I’m dating someone? Insanity is the only cause, evidently.

I’ve been in a relationship only once for Valentine’s Day. The one time I was, I cheated on him, so I’m not sure if the holiday counted for anything that year.

I thought that when this year came, and I was actually dating someone fairly regularly and neither of us hated each other enough to blow off the holiday, it would be given that something would go on that would be a little fun and wouldn’t involve kissing other people.

Then, when I figured out that I wasn’t willing to skip class for Valentine’s Day – especially when I have no qualms about doing so any other day of the year – I realized I was surely a freak of monumental proportions.

I would make up some sentimental stuff about how the feelings of Valentine’s Day should extend the entire year, making up the same protests against the day that I’ve made every other year; or saying that it’s commercialized to an extent that is absolutely sickening (which it is). Then I started thinking that maybe it is the little things that matter – his making time around my increasingly crazy schedule; taking me to see “Walk the Line” because I just had to see it in theaters, even though he’s seen it a dozen times already; putting up with all my obsessions (most notably watching every episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” each week, rerun or no, instead of spending an hour with him) when really he should be seeking some help for me.

Even after all that, I still don’t know necessarily how I feel about him, and the feeling is mutual.Which could be why I’m not all that eager to skip class and spend Valentine’s Day with someone I’m not horribly crazy about. But this year, for once, I’m actually believing all that stuff about how the favors and emotions associated with Valentine’s Day should be extended year-round, and not just piled on this one day, which will inevitably not live up to the hype and over-the-top expectations.

Instead, my Valentine’s Day will be defined by typography, page design and class until 10 p.m. It’s unusual but vaguely fitting for that holiday, at least in my life. I can’t decide if my feelings toward the holiday this year is just a reflection of my age – or maybe I’ll feel different a decade from now. This year’s holiday seems appropriately planned, for once.