What was your experience like in high school on Val's day? What was the atmosphere like?
My high school was an all girls school in Lagos, Nigeria, and I was in boarding school. We didn't joke about valentine's day at all, and though it was a single sex school, boys always found a way to woo our girls .
Since we had day-students ( those who came to school from home), some boys would send gifts through a day student to a girl in boarding school. Some girls got multiple presents from various admirers, while others were lover girls who had a dedicated boyfriend. Being a same sex school, we had girls val'ing other girls too.
See, we had girls who were so close, we called them chunkos. Chunkos may have been straight, lesbians, or experimenting but they were very close, and sometimes perceived to have something extra than best friends would.
We also had best friends val their best friends, sisters sending love to their sisters, and then juniors sending lots of love to seniors they admired or wanted to be like. It was really interesting watching a good number of junior girls flocking to a particular senior's dorm and the senior being so shy or embarrassed and her friends cheering.
So, when someone brings a gift towards our class or dorm, we would challenge the "messenger" to know who it is for, and help them announce the owner of the gift, cheering, teasing and handing over the present. The receiver was usually always smiling or laughing, and mostly shy but I never saw anyone reject a gift.
There were a few girls who got nasty and hateful gifts as they were perceived to be rude and/ mean. The gifts were either from boys or juniors. The sender would hardly leave their name but the whole school would usually hear about it.
We even made up names for different groups of people for vals day.
Roastoes: Roastoes were at the bottom of the list, they got absolutely nothing and didn't have anyone to share gifts with them either. It wasn't particularly sad, as every year, roastoes would make jokes about it and laugh together.
Perchers: Perchers had a friend or sister, cousin or someone who was val'd. This person would call them once a box of cake or chocolate appears. Perchers were more like assistant emotional supporters, or hype-girls.
Val'd: Of cos we had those who never roasted. They gave us something to talk about on vals day.
What category did Abi fall into? Hmm, for most part, especially in junior high, I was a roastoe. I always formed an association with my friends and laughed about how we roasted again that year. We would tell ourselves that the next year would be better, but lol.
As we grew a bit older, some of us started to have boyfriends or serious admirers, I was upgraded to a percher as a senior and I wasn't mad about it at all haha.
Every year though, as part of the tradition, the school sent boxes of mars, twix or bounty chocolate bars to students and every student got a bar each. Like I mentioned earlier, we took val's day seriously and so did our principal. It was nice though, and because of this, we were truly never roastoes haha.
What was Valentine's day like at your high-school? What was your experience? Were you a roastoe, a percher? or the val'd?
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In highschool, I took Valentine's day with a very light heart and I believe many of my classmates did too. We would all laugh and joke about it whether we were roastoes, perchers, or the val'd. We happily feasted on the chocolates or cake together and joked about falling in love with the guy who sent it (in case he had put a love portion in it, lol). We would playfully pray quickly to cancel any vodoo and feast away. We were happy girls.
Biological clock may be ticking, and many single people may be wondering why they feel so lonely. I wish we could have a less critical mind about valentine's day as me and some of my classmates did in high school. One single day doesn't define who you are. Remind yourself of how awesome you are and that love is looking for you too. I truly believe its on its way. In the meantime, shower yourself with love, grow yourself and enjoy this beautiful life God has given you.
Please don't forget to leave your feedback, response, and / Val's day experience in high-school.
Love,
Abi Tobi.