Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! Today is February 14th, 2017, which means it is Valentine’s Day. If you clicked on this post thinking I have a review for the movie called “Valentine’s Day” released 7 years ago, that’s not what this post is going to be. Instead, I’m going to talk about the holiday of Valentine’s Day itself. Many people view this day as a day of love, a day in which friends, families, and couples can share their love for one another in a much more expressive fashion than any other day of the year. The whole concept behind this day is something I can understand, but it doesn’t mean I agree with it.

Let me just say right now, I’m not saying I disagree with the idea of Valentine’s Day because I’m a hateful person, I love lots of people in my life. I love my family, I love my friends, I don’t have a girlfriend or anything along those lines but if I did have one I’d more than likely love her. The reason why I disagree is nothing to do with hate, it does however, have to do with love. I bet a lot of people in life ask what love truly is. People might ask it when they’re confused, people might ask it when they are learning words as kids, and I’m even willing to bet to this day that people still listen to Haddaway asking it all the time. “What is love? / Baby don’t hurt me / Don’t hurt me no more.” My answer to that question is this: Love is something you feel inside you. You sense it whenever you are with someone, with something, at someplace, someway, and/or somehow. If you have love in any sort of way, like for example if you have a girlfriend, you should show it to her in someway as often as you can. This to me, makes the whole concept of Valentine’s Day irrelevant and at this point, just an excuse for certain businesses to make money. Look at all the restaurants that are fully booked, look at the hotels that are rented for a short period of time, look at the pharmacies and grocery stores, you can likely see lots of people buying chocolates there. Why? Because of Valentine’s Day! This sort of thing works around holidays like Christmas, but I’d say it’s dumb around Valentine’s Day. To further support my point, allow me to introduce you to Jeremy Jahns.

If you have been following this blog for awhile, you may have seen me put in a quote from him before. It was on my post titled “Cinema Seating: Does it Matter?,” Now, I’m gonna credit one of his videos, I’m not saying you have to watch it, but it has to do with what I’m gonna say. This video is on Jeremy’s view of Valentine’s Day, and after watching it, it didn’t really get me thinking, but it kind of did awhile after and it’s still on my mind today. I wouldn’t say it BRAINWASHED me despite how often I watch this guy’s videos, but it’s something I constantly have in mind. If you want to watch the video, it’s down below, it’s an informative video and I consider it to be enjoyable.

Jeremy says in this video that the 24 hours that make up Valentine’s Day is .273% of the year, which is less than 1%. By that logic, it would take over 3.663 days just to get that precise 1%. I could probably get a package delivered to me in 3.663 days for crying out loud! This video mainly focuses on relationships and Valentine’s Day, and I do consider it to be important. I remember back in 8th grade, my science teacher referred to this as “International Breakup Day,” I can’t exactly recall if I have seen this video, but if I have, chances are I may have been thinking about this a little bit. Now, I’m going to do a much more complex equation.

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, I’m willing to bet that most people would consider their partner to be their Valentine, and that is something I’m about to focus on. Let’s say you just met in December, you are now in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. All of sudden, it’s a new year, the day is January 1st, this year won’t be a leap year so there are 365 days. You also recently turned 24, just to get a good mindset here. Let’s say that you go on a date every two weeks with your partner. There are 52 weeks in a year, and you go on a date with your partner every two weeks, that is half of the weeks in a year, which is equal to 26 weeks. Now let’s factor in something else, doing something after the date with your partner. Let’s say that you rent a hotel, you go to your partner’s home and stay awhile, or you and your partner go to your place and stay awhile. You might not do this every single time, and I’m no expert in the art of dating but if you want my opinion, DON’T do this every single time, I’m pretty sure every single one of you would agree. You can probably add that in as a second date, because you and your partner can arrive somewhere, chat for a bit, and depending on the situation, sleep together. This can extend into the next day and if this is done every single date, you two could have spent what could possibly be two dates in one. Therefore, you hit 52 dates, equal to the number of weeks in a year. You two could be seeing each other, at the most, 52 days per year, and at the least, 26 days per year. Granted there are certain amounts of time put into each date but this still stands.

Another thing I want to talk about related to couples and Valentine’s Day is the importance of the day itself. I’d say there’s way more than there should be. Valentine’s Day, like any other day, is 24 hours. How many hours are there in a year?  If it’s a typical 365 day year, there are 8,760 hours. If it’s a less than typical 366 day Leap Year, just add 24 and you get 8,784 hours. The 24 hours that is Valentine’s Day is viewed as the holy grail of love. Members of couples, depending on who they are, are expected to put in as much love to each other as they can into this one day. Whether it be by purchasing flowers, chocolates, cards, tickets to a romantic movie, or whatever other s*it you buy in an attempt to impress the other member of the couple. Maybe sometimes you don’t buy things, maybe you do something you don’t traditionally do that you think or know your partner may as well want you to do. Sometimes people create stuff, it saves money that goes to Hallmark on friggin Valentine’s Day cards! Members of couples also expect to always go somewhere or do something romantic for each other. Maybe they go to a fancy restaurant, maybe they kiss each other more than usual, maybe they go see a romantic movie at the theater. By the way, this is a bit of a digression, if any girls are thinking about taking their boyfriend to go see “Fifty Shades Darker” this year, don’t. Odds are that a good number of those guys will like you less or dump you. I haven’t seen it, but I’m just saying because I’m willing to bet that would happen. Also, to the guys that had to suffer through “Twilight” (glad to say I’m not one of them), I’m sorry. The point is, you don’t have to do all of this s*it on Valentine’s Day, or as I prefer to call it, February 14th. Not only does it sometimes shrink the amount of money you have by a significant amount, but it also may even give people the mindset that if you don’t put in a certain amount of love into one little day of the year, you’re a moron.

I don’t want to turn this into a rant, but I have to say something. Girls, let’s say you are dating me, and we actually started dating sometime around May. We are just about to hit the 1 year anniversary mark, we have plans to go to a fancy restaurant. If you cancel at the last minute, I’d understand. I have NO IDEA how many people are like this, and based on knowledge I have when I say that probably less than a significant amount of people are like this. You call and tell me you can’t go, you say it is because the season finale of your favorite show is on, I’d be fine with you staying home. I wouldn’t break up with you, granted I’d be disappointed, but we have many more opportunities to see each other. I’m not saying you should be this way, I’m just saying that I’m this way. Granted, if I were dating, this is something I’d likely not call about, but I’m just giving a sense of my personality to you. With that in mind, that can probably show how little I consider Valentine’s Day to be important compared to so many other people.

All in all, while Valentine’s Day may sound interesting in some ways, it is completely overrated in others. After all, it’s not the greatest holiday for me, considering I’m single (Granted I’m only 17, but still, I’m single). Although when I see Valentine’s Day, I don’t only see a day that doesn’t really cater to me since I’m single, but I also see a holiday that is a cash-in for so many businesses and tries to make you give all your love to someone that could really be receiving that love like literally ANY OTHER DAY. You may call Christmas a big cash-in in some ways, but it is a religious holiday and it involves something that people rarely do, which is exchanging gifts, and less rarely, spending time with family and friends. A lot of people love other people, so why make a holiday on something that can be done any point in time? I don’t know, but to me it’s kinda dumb. Is it worth celebrating? Maybe, but not if it’s the big thing it has come to be. I hope you enjoyed this post and I want to know, what are your thoughts on Valentine’s Day? Do you agree with me? Do you disagree with me? Leave a comment! As far as upcoming reviews go, you can probably tell I WON’T be seeing “Fifty Shades Darker,” and it’s not just because I’m a guy, it’s also because the lack of quality many people see in it. That and I think my mother would question why I would even watch the movie. I do however intend to see “John Wick: Chapter 2,” hopefully I can get a review for that soon and hopefully you all can stay tuned for it, along with more reviews coming up aside from that one. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!