Valentine's Day romantics?

Pinks and reds show up in display windows nationwide proclaiming weeks ahead the "perfect" way to shower your valentine with love. Flowers, stuffed animals, and chocolates are bought en masse by frantic consumers eager to earn brownie points on the romance-your-lover scale.

It's enough to make Valentine's Day seem like the most important celebration of the year.

But what about EMU? Do we fall into the same cliche categories as multitudes of other unoriginal Valentine's Day romantics? Hopefully not. Students here, sticking to a recurring theme of non-conformity (reaching as far back as Menno Simons), are unlikely to fall for any trite old typical Valentine's Day plans.

Even EMUers on cross cultural opted for more exciting V-Day plans. Emily Benner, a sophomore in Guatemala, attended a Mayan burning ceremony where a priest spat sacred "liquor" on her head to purify her. Sophomore Katie Cockley, member of the New Zealand group, honored the special day with a romantic dinner followed by a lively game of poker.

Back in the Burg, V-Day was slightly more typical. Despite busy college schedules, people managed to squeeze in special time for themselves or their significant other.

First-year Donovan Tann used the holiday as an excuse to go to bed at 9 o'clock, although he pondered and shared the benefits of Valentine's Day singleness first. Within the subcommunity of Xanga users, Tann shared three reasons for singleness: "first, one is able to splurge on one self with money that would otherwise be spent on your valentine; second, Valentine's Day creates higher risk for cavities; third, every heart seen on this day is anatomically incorrect."

Senior Shannon Terranova, a self-declared "unbitter single," had fun making little cards to give her friends. Terranova also treated herself to a lovely homemade valentine, before heading off to the whirling world of The Music Man practice.

Other students had fun transforming the average Valentine's Day gifts into something entirely different and unique. First-years Conrad Gross and Liz Cetkowski perfected the art of creating duct tape roses, 41 of which Conrad gave away to his throngs of valentines. Their creativity paid off, at least for sophomore Phil Shirk. During a Valentine's evening trip to IHOP, Shirk, who had not planned on ordering, gave his waitress one of these illustrious duct tape roses. She, in return, spread a wealth of blueberry pancakes on his plate, free of charge.

After five and a half years of marriage, Valentine's Day is no longer about getting stuff for Rachel Schrock. Instead, V-Day is a reason for her and her husband to celebrate each other and do something they really want to do. Said Schrock, "This may seem silly, but this year, I really wanted to get popcorn with our movie (something we usually can't afford)." Rather than going to a nice restaurant, the couple went out to see a matinee of "Hitch" and headed home to start another movie, during which Schrock fell asleep. While V-Day is still special for them, the couple can enjoy themselves, confident in their mutual love, without the pressure to do something especially romantic.