Valentine's Day Balloons

When I was in high school, it was tradition for students to purchase heart-shaped balloons for their friends the week before Valentine’s Day. Then all the kids crowded onto metal bleachers in the gym where balloons were handed out by members of the Student Council. This went exactly the way any empathetic person would imagine—with some students receiving so many balloons they were in danger of floating away, while others had only one or two balloons and found themselves wishing they were home with the flu. I was on the student council, which meant I was handing these little floating symbols of popularity out to my classmates. 

I’m not a morning person. Even now, at 46 years old, I still wake up just as groggy and unprepared for each day as I did back when I was 17. Some things never change. On that Valentine’s Day long ago, I hit the snooze button more times than should be aloud on an alarm clock, and got up just in time to get to school. 

It may seem beside the point, but in fact it’s important for you to know, that when I was in high school, for a brief window of time, a lot of girls were wearing dresses that looked like something out of Little House on the Prairie. The dresses were over-priced and covered with floral patterns that would have made Laura Ingles Wilder’s eyes sparkle with envy. I only owned one of these jewels and that’s what I hurriedly threw on before zipping to school on Valentine’s Day. 

Thanks to my morning stupor, I didn’t notice (until I got to school) how much my precious, prairie-style dress had shrunk in the dryer. The buttons were pulling significantly and I could see way too much of my white lacy tights, which were a fashion mistake all on their own. But I was especially aware of my ill-fitting dress as I walked around the gym, reaching over, around and between my classmates, handing out heart-shaped balloons. It would have been less awkward if I’d had a sweater to cover up the “long” sleeves of my dress. If they’d shrunk a little more they could’ve passed as three quarter length sleeves, but no such luck. And I remember wishing that I could shrink right out of sight or at least small enough to fit my dress…

As it turned out, I received a decent number of balloons that day— not nearly enough to float me up into the clouds, but enough to make up for the humiliation of wearing a too-small dress to school. Each year on Valentine’s Day I still think about the kids who didn’t get many balloons. I believe the teachers made sure everyone got one or two… A lot of us students tried to make sure of that as well, but I can’t be certain someone didn’t get left behind.

We have to look out for each other. We have to make sure that people know they’re loved. God loves each person so much that no amount of heart-shaped balloons could express it. It’s so important for people to hear that. 

And it’s significantly less important, but totally worth mentioning, that we should all take at least a quick look at ourselves and our clothing, before going out in public.

~Amy