Good & Healthy Relationship Advice & Tips
‘Gnashing’ on Valentine’s day
The clock is ticking and for the umpteenth time, she checks her phone for a missed call or a message. Once in a while, she opens the door to check if by any chance, she missed the sound of the doorbell or a knock.
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It’s February 14, Valentine’s Day, and a number of young men and women find themselves in this situation.
Valentine’s Day is a day where people expect something lovely from the opposite sex: a lovely night-out, a long-overdue love proposal, a box of chocolate, a hamper or a marriage proposal.
People show a lot of love on Valentine’s Day but, sometimes, things don’t happen as envisaged. While some people have a magical day, others wallow in disappointment.
Sometimes, some of the disappointed ones find solace in other alternatives and others snuggle in bed and cry the day away.
A young teacher, who gave his name only as Henry, had proposed to a girl he was in love with. She told him she will think about it. Valentine’s Day was eight days away and he strongly believed she was waiting for February 14 to accept his proposal.
“I just knew she would say yes because I knew she liked me too. I thought she wanted to stretch me till Valentine’s Day to make it worth remembering.
“I took her out on Valentine’s day feeling all good. We spent close to GH¢500 that night. We had a long chat; we talked about everything but the proposal and the “yes” never came,” Henry said.
To Henry, that was the worst Valentine ever. He went home disappointed but fortunately, he got his “yes”; not on Valentine’s Day, but on an ordinary day.
Unlike Henry, Husseina, a 28-year-old sales girl, neither got what she wanted on Valentine’s Day or afterwards.
Husseina had been dating her boyfriend for four years and she thought it was about time they got married. Her boyfriend’s excuse was that his job didn’t pay well but along the line, he got a well-paying job.
“He had never taken me out on Valentine’s Day, he only got me presents so when last year on Valentine’s Day he asked me out, I knew the marriage proposal was going to happen.
“We had a nice time but he never proposed. Things were never the same again from that night and we broke up eventually,” Husseina said.
When you live alone and you “gnash” on February 14, you can cope with it all right, maybe cry yourself to sleep but when you share a room with people who get gifts and dates on Valentine’s Day, coping with a disappointment and loneliness is very difficult.
Emma, a 31-year-old accountant, in an interview with The Mirror, said about nine years ago when she was in the University, she had to join the chants of “awwws” and “ohhhs” as her friends opened their gifts on Valentine’s Day.
“I shared a room with three other ladies. The hampers and gifts kept coming in on Valentine’s Day but none came for me.
“Even after eight p.m., I was still hopeful because I had a boyfriend. It turned out he wasn’t that ‘romantic’ so he sent me nothing except for a ‘happy Valentine’s Day’ message. It really hurt but I managed a cheerful face till my friends went to bed when I cried myself to sleep,” Emma said.
While some expect gifts on Valentine’s Day but do not get, some get the gifts but reject them.
Evans Koomson, a 33-year-old driver, had a crush on one of the girls in his neighbourhood and decided to get a gift for her on Valentine’s Day.
“I bought a hamper worth GH¢80 for her but when I took it to her place, she politely rejected it with the excuse that her parents don’t like her taking gifts from men.
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“Sadly, I carried the hamper back home. It was sad but as ‘boys boys’ do, I told the other guys who live in the house. We laughed about it and shared the content of the hamper,” Koomson narrated.
I hope you don’t get disappointed this Valentine’s Day but should someone disappoint you, you have a number of alternatives: cry yourself to sleep just like Emma or like Henry, wait patiently for the response to your proposal; it may not come on Valentine’s Day.
Better still, go out and have fun on your own or spend the day like any typical day.
Happy Vals Day.
