Voice staff reflects on their meaning of Valentine’s Day Robby Messer Editor in Chief When I asked my staff to write about their opinion of Valentine’s Day, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give my take on a day that, up until the last couple of years, had little or no meaning to me. Of course, the guaranteed box of candy from mom and dad will always hold a place in my heart. After all, I usually helped pick the candy for my gift. “Pick out some candy as if it was for you,” my mom would say. To my surprise, that same candy appeared with my name on it on Cupid’s busiest day of the year. Looking back, however, on the last three years, Valentine’s Day has taken on a much different meaning for me than the one meant to be conveyed by the flying baby with a bow and arrow starter set. Now this made me think a little bit. Here we have a holiday where a flying Robin Hood with diapers is allowed to determine the love lives of others by firing his arrows like cruise missiles. Sometimes he hits the target, sometimes he hits the wrong target. This explains why the country’s divorce rate is so high. It’s not that a couple couldn’t make it work out, it’s because Cupid’s arrow hit the wrong person. It’s one of the dangers of the job, I suppose. Take last year, for example. I spent four hours last year on Valentine’s Day arguing with a repercussion of Cupid’s arrow. Let me tell you, it was an exciting time. Guys, a bit of advice for the future: don’t ever work on Valentine’s Day if you’re significant other is busy trying to plan your life. That is perceived as a bad thing from the dictator’s chair. I don’t remember much about last year’s fiasco, however, other than the fact that it was horrible. All I can remember is this little voice next to me, screaming because she thought I couldn’t hear her from the other end of the couch, and telling me that I wasn’t listening to her. I wasn’t, though, as I find it difficult to listen to anyone who only cares about themselves. But, for the record, the main reason I wasn’t listening was because as I looked up at the television, I saw a familiar face on an episode of Diagnosis Murder. That face is the one I see every morning when I look in the mirror. Let’s go back two years now. All I ever wanted to be was an actor and anyone who knows me understands how much I wanted to move to Los Angeles and “make it.” But a funny thing happened on my way to the Oscars. I started to write. And write. And write. In fact, I began writing so much, that one day when I picked up the phone to call home to Phoenix, I said something that I never would have imagined myself saying once I moved to Los Angeles. “I’m coming home.” And that is how I got to my interpretation of Valentine’s Day. For the past couple of years, it has signified change in my life. Two years ago, when I made the decision to move home, I had no idea what I was getting into. But looking back, it was those experiences that helped shape me into the seriously funny person that I am today. After all, some of the things that I have had to go through to get to this juncture would drive anybody crazy if they didn’t have the sense of humor to get up, brush off the dirt, and lean into another one. And this year? Let’s just say that Cupid has been forgiven for the years of old. I’m a forgiving person as long as the person who has wronged me tries to make amends for their blunder. It just so happens that I did get struck by one of those arrows this Valentine’s Day. And Cupid’s aim was perfect.