Don't You Just Love Love?!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of the couples and singles out there! I've always liked Valentine's Day and I'm suspicious of anyone who doesn't. Valentine's Day is a day for celebrating love and in the words of my favorite mermaid, "don't you just love love?!"

The only thing I dislike about Valentine's Day is how marketed it has become. It seems like the day after Christmas aisles in stores are filled with boxes of chocolate that could double as a coffin for your sugar-induced death and teddy bears so large you need a tractor trailer to transport it to the (un)lucky recipient. Why can't Valentine's Day exist without unnecessary gifts?

I like to think of myself as a realist but deep down I'm a total hopeless romantic. I love watching proposal and wedding videos on YouTube for hours (although there is usually a correlation between Aunt Flo's visit and the amount of tear-inducing videos watched), receiving love notes, and Pinteresting thousands of wedding dresses even though I can only choose one. What can I say? I love a good love story. On a side note, I found the cuh-yoo-test wedding video on all of YouTube and if you can make it through the entire thing without shedding one tear, congrats, you don't have a heart.

Here's the thing: you celebrate Valentine's Day and not go over the top! Maybe it's because Christmas, Jesse's birthday, my birthday, our anniversary, and Valentine's Day fall within a month and two weeks of each other but we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day! I love making cute cards to give to family and friends but I don't think Valentine's Day is the only day you should acknowledge your love for those people.

I love my family, friends, and Jesse 365 days of the year. It's lovely to have a day to celebrate that love but at the end of the day, I always tell those closest to me how much I love them. Jesse and I, for example, never go to sleep without saying 'I love you' (part of that is this superstition that I have of either one of us dying in our sleep and therefore never getting to say 'I love you' for the last time).

Today, whether you're single or in a relationship, looking for a &$#! buddy or doing the long distance thing, tell someone you love them! Don't go spend all of your money on roses (so cliché), jewelry, chocolates, or whatever other material objects that represent love out there! The best gift of all - love - is free!

#RelationshipGoals

#RelationshipGoals have taken the Internet by storm. Search the hashtag on Twitter and you will see hundreds of photos of celebrity couples embracing, a man holding a woman's purse, a beautiful bouquet of flowers left on a girl's doorstep as a surprise, and so on. The hashtag is basically a place for people with some sort of build up of tension to admire the relationships of other people. While searching this hashtag can warm the heart ('tis the season) it can also get old reeeeeeeeeal fast.

I'm all about relationships - always have been and always will be. When I moved to college, there was a line drawn: either you were anti-relationship or pro-relationship. Being pro-relationship, I tried meeting guys, flirting awkwardly, and texting coyly during the fall semester of my freshman year (a semester that I'd like to CRTL + Z if ya know what I mean). I assumed everyone was trying to find love and found out that not everyone has the same intentions. In fact, I met some very anti-relationship people and let me tell you, if you meet anyone who is very adamant in their disbelief of love you should run as fast as you can from that person.

ANYWAYS. The point of this blog isn't to discuss my past. I want to stress the importance of personal relationship goals. Don't be jealous of that girl you played basketball with (or was it field hockey...?) who just posted a photo of her 3 trillion roses from #bae because apparantly, that's how their relationship goes! Jealousy is evil and the Internet makes it pretty easy to be consumed with it. I want everyone to keep in mind that what works for one couple won't necessarily work for another.

So what do I mean by personal relationship goals? Well for starters, stop comparing yourself to the photos, videos, and Tweets you see online! Think about all of the things that you love about your girlfriend/boyfriend. Maybe it's the way they make just enough coffee so that you can have a cup or maybe it's the way they make you laugh. Love can't be measured in material objects. Small actions say way more about your relationship than any amount of VS panties, jewelry, or flowers ever will.

The next time your boyfriend texts you "Good Luck :-)" before an exam, gives you the last scoop of ice cream, or puts on your favorite song in the car, just soak in the moment and realize that those are the things that true love is made of. Often, the true #RelationshipGoals aren't tangible and cannot be photographed.