Valentine's day is finally over. I have so many mixed feelings about this day, that I don't even know where to begin.
Firstly, I can't stand the fact that it's not a real holiday. I mean, it's not really a celebration of anything, it's just a commercial, made up holiday for the shops to sell all the heart shaped crap they couldn't sell throughout the rest of the year. The media makes you feel like you HAVE to buy something expensive to impress your loved ones and makes you feel like you're worthless if you didn't get anything.
The worst part is not that you might not get anything, but that the people who did get something only complain about it. I hate listening to people complaining that they got bad gifts when they should be thankful they got something in the first place. A friend of mine complained how she only got a necklace. ONLY? I mean come on, you got a necklace! (and it wasn't cheap, mind you).
On the other side of the picture are those that spend all their savings trying to impress their loved ones, only to hear "I only got a necklace" as thanks. I know a person who hates this month because his girlfriend's birthday, Valentine's day and their anniversary happen to come up only a few days apart. She isn't happy with just one gift. No. She wants three gifts. I know too many people who are that materialistic. I've heard too many people say "He only got me a little teddy bear" when the teddy was not little at all and was worth about a month's salary. Some people are never happy.
On the other hand, if you're not among those that hate the holiday, you might be one who can't wait till February 14th to show how much you love someone. If you have a reason to celebrate the holiday, why shouldn't you? I mean, I like the notion of having a day where you get to celebrate that you're in love... but shouldn't you celebrate that everyday? I admit, I used to hate Valentine's day in the past, but not because of the afore mentioned reasons. It was because I couldn't stand being abandoned by everyone else cause they were off to celebrate with their partners. I was always the third wheel, therefore I would spend my Valentine's day alone, wondering why nobody thought of me. But now that I do have someone to celebrate with, I feel somewhat guilty that I might be doing to someone what was done to me in the past. This tends to make me not want to celebrate.
It's really all just BS, and I wish I could just ignore the day. It's no different than any other day anyway. But the media makes it impossible to ignore, and if you do somehow manage to ignore the media, you're bombarded by comments from people who keep reminding you that they hate Valentine's day. If they hate it, they should just ignore it, or possibly throw eggs at people who are in love, for the fun of it ;)
I have to admit though, that it is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. I have every reason to celebrate Valentine's day, even though I hate spending a lot of money for a commercial holiday. But I don't feel guilty at all that I celebrated Valentine's weekend with the one I love. It was so worth it.
All in all... I like what the day stands for... I just wish that there wasn't such fuss over it. It's not the end of the world if you're single, and it's not the only day of the year to show the person you love how you feel. Don't you wish you were cupid sometimes? It would be awesome to have his aim and a crossbow at times, wouldn't it? ;)
Showing posts with label aftermath. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aftermath. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Aftermath
So the Christmas season is officially over. Stores are turning back to what they once were before all the tinsel and glitter decorated all the shelves, street decorations and lights have been taken down, the mind numbing Christmas carols have stopped bombarding our streets, and our replaced gadgets are being thrown into some landfill.
Although the outside has stopped reminding us of the Christmas season, there are still a couple of things that never let us forget. For some it's the few extra kilos they put on during the holidays, and for others it's the wonderful gifts they received.
Not everyone experiences this time of year in a good way. While people might feel better that all the hassle is over, others might feel like the best part of the year is over and it's back to work. But whatever one might feel, there are things well all go through. Here's where I come in :P
I'm posting this to make you all aware of what you might need to do at this point in time.
Evaluate
Some like to send thank you cards to the people who sent them a Christmas gift. If you're one of these people, have you compiled a list of the gifts you've received? It's not nice the get a "Thanks for the Christmas gift" card in summer. Don't let it linger too long. Find the time, write the cards and send them out. If that's too much of a hassle, text, email or send an instant message to those who have access to these things and send card only to those who don't know how to communicate otherwise.
Restore
If you were one of the many people that decorated for the holidays but needed to go back to work immediately after, you might still have everything set up at home. Plan a day when you can pack everything up again. Don't procrastinate and reassure yourself that it's ok to leave everything up for now, because before you know it, you'll find yourself still staring at the decorations come February.
Remove
If you still have all the gift wrapping, extra packaging, manuals, boxes and cards and they're cluttering your room, well... I don't think I have to tell you what you need to do here. If it's made from plastic or paper, don't forget you can recycle it! You can also make some cool up-cycled stuff, specially using Christmas cards. I usually cut out the front of used cards and make them little tags to use with next year's gifts :)
Think
One last thing. This is the hard part. You need to think about all the presents you received. Did you love them so much that you use them all the time? Were they gifts you can't use and you had to leave them lying somewhere in the house? Did you hate them and didn't even bother to find them a place to lie? These things need to be taken into consideration.
If you kept the gifts, and it's important for the people around you to see you use them, then don't leave them somewhere and forget all about them.
If received a courtesy gift that you don't need or won't ever use, stick a post-it note with the name of whoever gave it to you on it and store it somewhere so that you can re-gift it. That note might save you from giving it to the same person you got it from should you decide to give it away in the future.
If you got a gift that replaced an old, broken or overused and useless item, there's no need to hang on to the replaced item. You don't need something that doesn't work. I have made this mistake many times. Camera broke? Well take all the parts that might actually come in handy (like the screws and maybe the LCD display or lens) and discard the rest. Mobile phone was replaced by something better? Sell your old one to someone who might need it. Don't be a pack-rat for the sake of needing something "just in case".
Although the outside has stopped reminding us of the Christmas season, there are still a couple of things that never let us forget. For some it's the few extra kilos they put on during the holidays, and for others it's the wonderful gifts they received.
Not everyone experiences this time of year in a good way. While people might feel better that all the hassle is over, others might feel like the best part of the year is over and it's back to work. But whatever one might feel, there are things well all go through. Here's where I come in :P
I'm posting this to make you all aware of what you might need to do at this point in time.
Evaluate
Some like to send thank you cards to the people who sent them a Christmas gift. If you're one of these people, have you compiled a list of the gifts you've received? It's not nice the get a "Thanks for the Christmas gift" card in summer. Don't let it linger too long. Find the time, write the cards and send them out. If that's too much of a hassle, text, email or send an instant message to those who have access to these things and send card only to those who don't know how to communicate otherwise.
Restore
If you were one of the many people that decorated for the holidays but needed to go back to work immediately after, you might still have everything set up at home. Plan a day when you can pack everything up again. Don't procrastinate and reassure yourself that it's ok to leave everything up for now, because before you know it, you'll find yourself still staring at the decorations come February.
Remove
If you still have all the gift wrapping, extra packaging, manuals, boxes and cards and they're cluttering your room, well... I don't think I have to tell you what you need to do here. If it's made from plastic or paper, don't forget you can recycle it! You can also make some cool up-cycled stuff, specially using Christmas cards. I usually cut out the front of used cards and make them little tags to use with next year's gifts :)
Think
One last thing. This is the hard part. You need to think about all the presents you received. Did you love them so much that you use them all the time? Were they gifts you can't use and you had to leave them lying somewhere in the house? Did you hate them and didn't even bother to find them a place to lie? These things need to be taken into consideration.
If you kept the gifts, and it's important for the people around you to see you use them, then don't leave them somewhere and forget all about them.
If received a courtesy gift that you don't need or won't ever use, stick a post-it note with the name of whoever gave it to you on it and store it somewhere so that you can re-gift it. That note might save you from giving it to the same person you got it from should you decide to give it away in the future.
If you got a gift that replaced an old, broken or overused and useless item, there's no need to hang on to the replaced item. You don't need something that doesn't work. I have made this mistake many times. Camera broke? Well take all the parts that might actually come in handy (like the screws and maybe the LCD display or lens) and discard the rest. Mobile phone was replaced by something better? Sell your old one to someone who might need it. Don't be a pack-rat for the sake of needing something "just in case".
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