With this year’s Valentine’s Day on a Saturday, people were able to celebrate the holiday with more love than usual. Long-distance couples were able to come together while families and friends were able to travel.
Jordan Mareno, senior, and her boyfriend, Alexander McGee, a Leesville alumni at UNC Chapel Hill, were fortunate enough to be able to see each other for the entire day.
The couple created their own fondue night by setting up the dining room table with candles, roses, champagne glasses, a red tablecloth and romantic music.
“Our goal was to have the cheesiest, most cliche Valentine’s Day possible. We dressed up nice–I wore a red and white outfit, and he wore a pink bow tie…We like to do fancy dates often, but for Valentine’s Day it was nice to stay in and make fun food ourselves,” said Mareno.
Leah Behrends, sophomore, took a trip to Boone, North Carolina over the holiday weekend. She and her family met up with very close family friends from Florida.
“We went tubing, downtown and just enjoyed each other’s company,” said Behrends.
Savannah Fraleigh, junior, also spent the day traveling.
“I traveled two hours to Winston Salem with my friends, Abbey and Lindsay, to watch our teammates run at the indoor track state championships,” said Fraleigh. “We made them all posters and made a cake for our coach because it was his birthday.”
After another two hour drive home, Fraleigh and her boyfriend got together to exchange presents, make cookies, play games and watch The Interview.
Regarding the spirit of the holiday, Mareno said, “I’ve always seen Valentine’s Day as something we all know to be arbitrary and made up. That said, I think it’s better to embrace it rather than make fun of it. It’s never ever a bad thing to show people you love them. Why not have a day when you exaggerate it?”
