By Connie Yonashiro
Just as everyone is unique, a Valentine’s Day gift from a boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse should reflect how much he or she appreciates those quirks and idiosyncrasies. And guess what? Chocolates and roses just might not cut it.
In the traditional and complacent past, chocolates and roses on Valentine’s Day meant, “I love you.” Now these gifts may be interpreted as, “I’m unimaginative and scared to take chances.” As our society becomes more focused on the individual rather than on the collective, more students said they are expressing their love in distinctive ways that show they appreciate their special someone.
Rachel Fleming, 21, from Fayetteville, Ark. said unique gifts mean a lot more when the person remembers something their girlfriend or boyfriend said passively and then acts on it. It shows they really are paying attention to what the other person cares about.
For one BYU student searching for a gift, love took its form in the shape of a hippo with a heart on its backside.
“The girl I was dating at the time had just received a blanket from her mom which had pink hippos on it,” said Ben Smith, 22, from Chicago. “As a result, when I saw a pink hippo in the BYU Bookstore with a heart on its butt, I immediately thought of her and bought it for her. Luckily, she didn’t interpret it to mean that she looked like a hippo.”
A Valentine’s Day gift that set another student on an adventure, started with a paper-folded fortuneteller given to her by her boyfriend that told her locations instead of fortunes.
“[There were] choices on it that were different places I had to go to,” said Angela Chau, 19, from Boulder, Colo. “He had stuff hidden around the school, then when I opened up the messages it said things like ‘I’m the luckiest guy around’ and lots of sweet things about me. It was nice.”
Students interviewed said the most important thing a person should keep in mind when choosing or making a Valentine’s Day gift should be how much the person receiving the gift will appreciate and treasure it.
Many people may be under the impression that gifts that are expensive will be appreciated more. However, people underestimate how simple and inexpensive gifts can mean so much to someone.
Zhe (Shelly) Wang, 21, from Portland Ore., said a jar filled with colored, folded origami stars, with a love note inside, meant a lot to her because in China, where she’s originally from, dating during school is discouraged.
Other gifts are more personal in nature, emphasizing the special qualities of the special someone. Before marrying her finance, Jackie Auna, 25, from Washington, D.C., said she would receive original poems on laminated red hearts from him that she now keeps and treasures.
Still other students get creative by reinventing traditional gifts usually given at Valentine’s Day. David Ferris, 22, from Olympia, Wash., took the traditional gift of flowers one step further by buying plastic flowers. That way they won’t wilt or die, he said.
Students have also found ways to create gifts that will always remind their special someone of them.
“A cute thing to do is to go to Build-A-Bear with your boyfriend or girlfriend and build replicas of yourselves,” Fleming said. “Then you swap dolls so that the other person will have a ‘little you’ that they can carry around where ever they go. ”
In return for his pink hippo with a heart on it’s backside, Smith received a Valentine’s Day First Aid Kit, including a hazardous materials bags filled with Reese’s and a book of jokes.
Everyone knows roses eventually die and chocolates eventually get eaten. Students who want to make a special Valentine’s Day for their sweethearts should give a gift that will stir up memories of this special day set aside for love.
(For comments, e-mail Connie Yonashiro at
