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Wellness > Sex + Relationships

The Best and the Worst Valentine’s Day Experiences

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FSU chapter.

Oh, Valentine’s Day! A day to spend some time among loved ones sharing hearts, candies and good memories- at least that’s how most hope it goes. Some get an amazing fairy tale-esque day filled with romance and self-care, while others… well, they tried their best. 

“My best one was probably when an old boyfriend of mine surprised me with flowers, a handwritten letter, food, coffee and made me so special that day. Later, that week, he took me out for dinner and made me feel beautiful.”

-Anonymous Cupid   

“On Valentine’s day last year, my (now ex) boyfriend and I were both excited to eat dinner at our local PF Chang’s to celebrate our first Valentine’s day together. We both thought the restaurant would be really good because it had a GIANT horse statue in the front that looked super fancy. I was supposed to have dance practice that night, but I totally skipped it just so we could eat at this place and both of us dressed up nicely and drove to the restaurant in the evening. When we got there, it was absolutely PACKED. There were probably 20 other couples waiting to be seated before us and the atmosphere inside was more chaotic than romantic.

We decided that it would be worth it to wait though, so we put our names on the list and waited and waited and waited. Finally, we were seated at a table and ordered our food. By the time the food finally came out, we were both starving, but we were both surprised at how amazingly mediocre it turned out to be. It was too salty and WAY overpriced for what it was. In the end, we both decided that we probably should’ve just stayed at home, but at least we got to take some pictures with the giant horse at the front of the restaurant!”

-@tiffxnyliu

“I had an incredibly terrible experience for one Valentine’s day. My boyfriend at the time surprised me with a puppy, which was my dream come true. But then it sh*t all over my carpets and he wouldn’t help me clean it up. Let’s just say we didn’t last to the next holiday.”  

-Anonymous Cupid

“I went home to my empty apartment after a long night shift on Valentine’s day, took a short nap, and then hit Walmart up for all of that 75% off chocolates. All in all, still my best experience.”

-Anonymous Cupid

Box of chocolates
Via Jill Wellington on Pixabay

“I had Carpal tunnel surgery on my hand on Valentine’s and my girlfriend was sooooo sick, but we had already booked a restaurant for the holiday, so we went anyway. My ex-girlfriend had to cut all my food up for me, and since she wasn’t feeling good, to begin with, we ended up not even eating all that much. I was in pain, she felt bad and I couldn’t even cut my own food. It turned out she wasn’t just feeling sick, she was and ended up spending the whole night in the bathroom. I couldn’t sleep nor help her because of how much my hand was hurting post-op…. and, kind of because of the noises she made. Very f*cking bad. We were both miserable.”

-@itssimlyla

“My first Valentine’s Day with my boyfriend we went to Epcot and watched the fireworks and now we always love to go back to Epcot and relive it all!”

–@hannahmasten

“So, it was junior year and my ex-bf, and I had to celebrate Valentines on a Saturday after his work. I came by his work to pick him up and he had surprised me with a huge bag of miscellaneous candies and Valentines’ stuff which was cute. We decided to go to the town square for our date and walked around for a bit and decided to grab a bite at Panera.

What we forgot to remember was everything closes at like 9:30 there so we were THOSE people coming in like 30 mins before the restaurant closes. Anyway, we had gotten the meals with that 99-cent pastry deal, but by the time we finished our meals and were like ‘eh maybe I do want something sweet’ the employees had put all the pastries on display in a (clean) garbage bag. They gave us a brown bag and were like ‘oh oops just take whatever you want’. We left with like 6-8 pounds of sweets.”

-@genesisheart

“We had been dating for like over a year at this point, so we obviously had a lot planned for Valentine’s day. Unfortunately, that day was also on a school day and we had to start our day at school. We got each other the typical teddy bears and chocolates, lovey-dovey stuff, all was well.

After school, we were supposed to catch a movie and then have a super fancy dinner. We ended up going to my house so I could change. Now, we had definitely talked about sex before but both of us agreed that our first time should be spontaneous and natural. I had heard so many stories about how awkward a first time can, I imagine planning it out might just add fuel to the fire. 

Anyway, my ex-boyfriend had gone to the restroom while I was changing. I was looking through my drawers and found some lingerie I had bought a while, and I guess that’s where it all started. When he came out of the bathroom, he knocked on my door to see if I was finished changing. He was super delighted to see what I was wearing, and things started to heat up. 

Let’s just say we easily missed the movie with how intense things got. I didn’t have intentions of for sex that night, I honestly had just been planning on some great make out seshs. But eventually, he asked me if I was ready to have sex, and I guess I said yes because I could tell he was. As most first times, it was awkward, and it hurt. I honestly liked making out a lot better, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

Once the moment was over and we made it to dinner I was kind of relieved. Unfortunately, the only thing he could talk about at dinner was sex. He really enjoyed it and kept bringing it up, he kept saying he had no regrets about what we did. Personally, it was mediocre, subpar at best, and the moments leading up to it were a lot more special to me than the actual act but, because he was so happy and I could see that he truly enjoyed it, I held in how I truly felt and just pretended like I enjoyed it just as much as him. I somehow even told him I’d want to do it again after dinner! 

Despite the awkwardness of it all, it really did turn out to be a pivotal point for our relationship. I always thought that I was just lusting after him because he played sports, was attractive, somewhat tall, had blonde hair and blue eyes and was athletic!

That valentine’s day was special to me because that’s when I realized I truly loved him for who he is. It wasn’t just like I had thought it was. I loved him regardless of how bad the sex was, it was important to me. Fortunately, the sex did get better eventually. We’re not together anymore but I’ll always remember that Valentine’s day as one of the better ones!”

-Anonymous Cupid

“My girlfriend and I were in high school and while we celebrated for the day I went to a movie with my friends and not her. I ended up just sitting there, attempting to enjoy the movie while my friends were basically dry humping next to me.”

-Anonymous Cupid

Notting Hill gif
Giphy

“My friends and I started a Galentines idea because it’s a cute and fun idea and we all were single. We planned to go out to a local sushi bar all together where they served plates of it. It started as a fun time but then it got competitive! How many plates could we finish by the end of the night? I think I got up to twelve but one of my friends ate seventeen. It was the best time I’ve ever had on a Valentine’s.”

-@maryallisonvevo

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Hello! My name is Cali Robins, I am studying English with a focus on Literature and its connections with culture and our current media, at Florida State University with a minor in Anthropology. My goal at HerCampus FSU is to provide readers with an unbiased reading of the news and to highlight some of my own interests in hopes that my readers will get a taste of my authentic voice.