Annual February tradition sweeps campus

February 14th, 2010 | By | Section: Features

To most, Valentine’s Day is the holiday, which is popularly considered to be the bane of the single person’s existence. To others, it is the reason why so many people are born in November.

February 14 takes Grinnellian awkwardness to another level. The weeks leading up to it can end up being a nasty Russian roulette of finding love. To take away from the frustration, students have taken somewhat ingenious approaches to embracing the holiday.

Some students find single to be sexy. After experiencing two Valentine’s Days in a relationship and one year clinking glasses in Spain with her “single ladies”, Asia Sample ’10 will be taking herself out to the movies to see Valentine’s Day.

“I think that the movies that come out on Valentine’s Day are exciting,” Sample said. “I’m excited to see Ashton Kutcher, fellow Iowan, on screen.” Sample’s choice reflects the tasteful perspective that seeing a movie alone can be self-rewarding. Whoever said you couldn’t be your own Valentine?

Others have taken a more daring approach—confessing their love. Harpreet Singh ‘12 will be inserting a dozen roses into the mailboxes of those he finds closest to his heart. According to Singh, during high school he kept up a regular practice of giving roses to people who had effected his life positively due to a father figure advising him to let people know he cared about them.

“I’m gonna show them, ‘Thanks. You’ve been a good friend to me,’” Singh said. He also will be leaving a note for a special someone. Singh wouldn’t reveal the person’s identity—he wanted to keep it off the record. “One person is gonna get that note that says, ‘I’m feelin’ you,” Singh said. “‘I hope you feelin’ me.’”

Jerl Fields ’11 is also writing letters to special someones— his mother and grandmother. Every year, Fields sends cards back home. “Those are the first ladies,” Field said.
But one Grinnelian has taken Valentine’s Day and given it an entrepreneurial bent—a lesbian dating service. Bateman calls his quasi-business CLIT—Crazy Lesbians Introduced by Thomas.

Bateman operates under the opinion that sooner or later, throughout a women’s four years here, she eventually becomes queer. But she doesn’t know who’s queer, so in comes Bateman.

“I know a lot of people and have taken several GWSS classes. Lesbians are very likely to be found in GWSS, Theatre, Environmental Science, the Birkenstocks section of shoe stores and the flannel section of Second Mile,” Bateman said. “So, between these five general locations, I am able to find quite a large dating pool and start to introduce lesbians.”

According to Bateman, he’s had a few successful matches. Two of his friends, Erica and Becca, were CLIT’s first success. He’s now taken pride in his new subspecialty, lesbians with the same name—such as Anna and Anna. After graduation, Bateman hopes to expand his faux-business in the big city and expand the CLIT franchise. “I’m gonna host scissor suarees,” Bateman said. “Lesbian ski-getaways at Lodge Lesbo. My lesbian lodge in the Alps!”

Whether you’re at the cinema, writing a secret on Plans, going on a CLIT-arranged date, getting ready to spend your work-study money at the Phoenix or settle in with a bottle of wine and your friends, the S&B urges you to be your own Valentine if you don’t have a person to share it with. This third year couple put it the best—“All kinds of love can be celebrated on Valentine’s Day,” said Maia Larson ’11. Charlie Zimmerman ’11 corrected her—“Conglomerate love,” he said.